London cleans up after Mayday protests

A cleaning operation is taking place in Central London after yesterday's unrest during Mayday protests. Following sporadic skirmishes between protesters and police, there was further violence last night when a group of militant anti-capitalists attacked a number of shop fronts. More than 50 people were injured in the protests and 29 needed hospital treatment, though the level of violence was much lower than last year. Those injured included three police officers and a police horse was also hurt.

Sixty-five people were arrested, as police penned in the 5,000 demonstrators in the Oxford Circus area for up to seven hours. Those arrested included eight from Denmark, Poland, Belgium and the United States. Police also seized weapons, including a loaded airgun and a martial arts weapon. The containment exercise by the 6,000 police officers has been hailed as a successful policing operation. The Chairman of the London Metropolitan Police Authority commended the police for their handling of the event. "I believe they struck the right balance between facilitating peaceful demonstrations and deterring violent disorder," Lord Harris said.

The London protests organised to protest against capitalism, began in carnival style as mass cycle rides through the streets stopped traffic. However, the atmosphere changes as a large group gathered in Oxford Street and were hemmed in by police. This came at the climax of what the organisers called a game of Mayday Monopoly. They had called for protests at locations represented in the board game.

There were a series of skirmishes between police and demonstrators in side-streets and battles erupted when a large crowd of protesters broke through police cordons at times. Officers, who came under a hail of bottles and sticks, led baton charges at demonstrators who tried to push their way through police lines. During the day, one group unsuccessfully tried to break down boarding covering the windows of the Niketown store.

Police contained the protesters in large groups around Oxford Circus. However, as night fell, up to 60 people broke away and made their way to the unguarded Tottenham Court Road. They smashed shopfronts with rocks and other missiles, targeting firms including The Royal Bank of Scotland, Abbey National, Barclays Bank, Coffee Republic and Habitat, and attempting to set fire to a Tesco store. Their actions were condemned by the London Lord Mayor, Ken Livingstone.

Outside London, two people were arrested during a small anti-capitalist demonstration in Bristol and about 60 protesters held a march in Manchester. In Glasgow, 400 demonstrators gathered for a carnival-style protest.