Police and protesters have clashed during a heated anti-vaccination, anti-lockdown demonstration in central London.
Hundreds of people descended on Trafalgar Square for a “Resist And Act For Freedom” rally on Saturday afternoon, before sections got into scuffles with Metropolitan Police officers.
Dozens of officers, including some mounted on horseback, tried to break up ranks of protesters who had formed human blockades to prevent them making arrests, with loud cheering and chanting as they pushed back the police.
Demonstrators form a chain during an anti-vax protest in Trafalgar Square (Yui Mok/PA)
Hundreds gathered in Trafalgar Square (Yui Mok/PA)
Traffic around Trafalgar Square came to a halt during the demonstration, with one protester seen apparently spitting through the open window of a taxi whose driver had beeped the horn in frustration.
Rally organisers sold T-shirts bearing 5G conspiracy theories and advocating the legalisation of cannabis, with banners calling for Government scientific advisers to be sacked and declaring Covid-19 a “hoax”.
Addressing the crowd to huge cheers, organiser Kate Shemirani said: “We are the resistance.”
The protest was advertised with an image showing a vaccine bottle and urging people to “Come together, resist and act”.
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