Police appeared to detain several men in Trafalgar Square. One person allegedly threw an object at a police van at the pro-Palestinian demonstrations, near to Nelson’s Column in Trafalgar Square.
He was chased by officers and caught whilst jumping into a fountain in the square, which sparked a confrontation between protesters and Met officers – with a semi-circle formed around the man.
After a video of a second man being detained in the Whitehall area began circulating on social media, the force confirmed he had been arrested but said it was “not for anything in connection to carrying the Union Flag”.
In updates on arrests, the Metropolitan Police initially said seven people had been arrested during the protest, two for public order offences and one for criminal damage.
Certain areas of central London were covered by a Section 60AA power, which requires a person to remove items such as masks that might be used to conceal their identity, until 22:00 BST. Four of the seven arrests were made under these powers.
The force later said eight more people had been arrested in the evening over offences including assaults on emergency workers and setting off fireworks in a public place.
Protesters on the route to Westminster could also be heard chanting “Rishi Sunak, shame on you” and the slogan “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free”.
Earlier this week, Home Secretary Suella Braverman urged police chiefs to consider whether the slogan should be interpreted as an “expression of a violent desire to see Israel erased from the world”, possibly making it a “racially aggravated” public order offence in some contexts.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-67110119
