Protestors topple Confederate statue in North Carolina city

WASHINGTON: Demonstrators toppled a statue of a Confederate soldier in North Carolina on Monday, two days after violence erupted during a protest by white nationalists against the planned removal of another Confederate monument.

Local television networks in Durham, North Carolina, broadcast images of the statue outside the old Durham County courthouse being pulled down as dozens of protestors cheered.

A demonstrator could be seen climbing a ladder and looping a yellow strap around the statue, the Confederate Soldiers Monument, which was erected in 1924 to honour the southern dead in the 1861-1865 Civil War.

After the statue came crashing to the ground, demonstrators could be seen spitting on it and kicking it.

“We are the revolution,” they chanted. “No KKK, no fascist USA.”

“The people, united, will never be defeated,” they said.

The toppling of the statue in Durham came two days after clashes in Charlottesville, Virginia, between antiracism protestors and white nationalists opposed to a plan to remove a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee from a park.

One woman was killed and 19 other people were injured when a suspected white extremist drove his car into a group of counter-protestors.

Two policemen assigned to the rally were killed when their helicopter crashed.

President Donald Trump, after initially blaming the Charlottesville violence on “many sides,” singled out white extremists on Monday saying they were “repugnant.”