Thousands of people gathered in London and across the country yesterday to demonstrate against the brutal killing of George Floyd in the US – despite police and ministers urging them to stay away for fear of spreading Covid-19.
After a day of overwhelmingly peaceful protests across the country, a section of the London march descended into ugly violence, with clashes in Whitehall near the gates to No 10.
Some of the crowd threw flares, bottles and sticks as police on horseback attempted to push them back away from the entrance to Downing Street.
The Metropolitan Police force said that ten officers have been injured as a result of Saturday’s demonstration and 14 arrests were made.
At one stage, a police horse bolted – apparently spooked by a thrown missile – smashing its officer against a traffic light before galloping away and knocking a passer-by to the ground.
The officer was taken to hospital last night with injuries which are “not life-threatening”, the Metropolitan Police force said last night.
They added: “The officer fell from her horse, and we are examining the full circumstances of what took place. The horse, uninjured, made its own way back to the stables nearby.”
Read the latest on the London George Floyd protests here: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2020/06/06/thousands-set-attend-black-lives-matter-protests-across-uk-despite/?WT.mc_id=tmg_youtube_offsite_televideo-youtubevideo_7Junehorselondon&utm_source=tmgoff&utm_medium=tmg_youtube&utm_content=offsite_televideo&utm_campaign=tmg_youtube_offsite_televideo-youtubevideo_7Junehorselondon
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