(Newswire.net— September 27, 2020) — British police clashed with protesters in central London during the dispersal of protests over restrictions that were imposed to combat the coronavirus, BBC reports.
There are injured on both sides, and the conflict came after three hours of peaceful protest, when the police began to disperse the crowd because protesters ignored warnings to respect the rules of social distancing.
Thousands of people, most of them without masks, gathered in Trafalgar Square, where speakers criticized the government for three hours before the police moved to action. Protesters criticized the government’s overreaction that “unnecessarily restricted human rights and freedom of expression.”
Protesters waved banners with slogans against mandatory vaccination and the obligation to wear a mask and against restrictions on civil liberties.
When the protesters refused to comply with the request to respect the rule of maintaining safe distance, the police removed the loudspeakers. As bottles were thrown at the police, they used batons in clashes with protesters.
Several people were arrested and nine police officers were injured in the clashes.
For the first three hours of the rally, the police acted passively, but then they started to disperse the protest.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan said protests are “reckless, violent and totally unacceptable.”
“We cannot let the sacrifices Londoners have made be undermined by the selfish behavior of a small number, he said and added that “Violence of this kind towards officers will not be tolerated and perpetrators will feel the full force of the law.”
The British Parliament is preparing to consider laws related to the epidemic, and the government is introducing new restrictions to combat it.
Nearly 42,000 people have died in the UK from the effects of coronavirus infection, one of the highest death tolls in Europe.
In the previous weeks, there was a sharp increase in the number of deaths, newly infected, and hospitalized.