Police officers led several people away in handcuffs after protesters ignored requests to disperse.
By Yuliya Talmazan |
LONDON — Police arrested more than 150 people on Saturday as they tried to break up anti-lockdown and anti-vaccine protests in the British capital, as the country continues to battle its Covid-19 outbreak.
Hundreds of protesters, most of them not wearing face masks, descended on central London’s shopping district, holding up signs saying “Unmask truth” and chanting “Freedom,” in contravention of strict coronavirus rules banning mass gatherings.
London’s Metropolitan Police said in a statement its officers made a number of “early interventions” to prevent people from gathering and to urge people to go home, adding that they intercepted buses transporting protestors into the capital, and those who did not turn back and go home were either arrested or issued with fine notices.
Police officers led several people away in handcuffs after protesters ignored requests to disperse. Several bottles and smoke bombs were thrown as demonstrators scuffled with police.
Metropolitan police said the arrests were made for breaching coronavirus restrictions and assaulting police officers among other offences.
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