Goverment cuts and protest begin
Several hundred masked protesters clashed with police, attacked shops and occupied a top store in London Saturday after hundreds of thousands of people rallied against government austerity measures.
About 4,500 police officers struggled to control escalating violence in the British capital’s main shopping district, where a breakaway group of demonstrators went on the rampage.
The unrest overshadowed a peaceful march earlier in the day of up to 300,000 protesters against harsh public spending cuts introduced by the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government.
Clad in black and covering their faces with scarves, the protesters clashed with police, hurling fireworks, petrol bombs and paint.
Clothes store Topshop and bank HSBC had their windows smashed, while some protesters hurled missiles at London’s landmark Ritz Hotel. Others lit a bonfire at Oxford Circus, in the heart of the shopping district.
UK Uncut, a group running a campaign against government cuts and corporate tax avoidance, said it had occupied luxury department store Fortnum & Mason in the shopping district. They accused the owners of tax-dodging.
Five police officers were injured, with one being taken to hospital, Scotland Yard said. Twenty-eight members of the public were injured over the course of the day and seven were taken to hospital, police said.
Commander Bob Broadhurst, who led the police operation, said a group of around 500 protesters were behind the violence.
