Protesters join racism row

Thousands of people have marched across London to protest against the death of George Floyd.

The Black Lives Matter demonstration yesterday started in Trafalgar Square, where people chanted Mr Floyd’s name and knelt on the floor, before heading to the US embassy in Battersea.

Five people were arrested at the Nine Elms site, the Metropolitan Police said, including three for coronavirus breaches and two for assault on police officers.

Those detained were aged between 17 and 25, Scotland Yard said.

One demonstrator said the protests were “sending a clear message that we have had enough racial injustice in our country”.

Isabelle Orsini, 20, is originally from New York, but now lives in Kensington. She told the PA news agency: “It is very important that we do whatever it takes to tell our government that racism will not be tolerated.”

After Battersea, protesters headed through affluent Chelsea, Knightsbridge and Notting Hill, before gathering at the base of Grenfell Tower, where 72 people died in a 2017 fire.

A preacher at a church on Trafalgar Square, where the protest started, said she was “very sympathetic” towards those marching but expressed some concern about how close they were.

The Rev Sally Hitchiner, associate vicar at St Martin-in-theFields, told PA: “Clearly they’re not following lockdown and social distancing, but I think there’s a huge amount of passion there.”

The London demonstration comes after tens of thousands of people joined nightly protests across the US since the death.