Hundreds of people gathered on Thursday in central London to express their protest against the tougher restrictions that came into force in the United Kingdom.
“Officers policing demonstrations in central London on Thursday, 5 November have so far made 104 arrests. Demonstrations took place in spite of new national restrictions which have been introduced to limit the spread of Coronavirus. As soon as crowds began gathering, officers took immediate action to direct people to go home, arrests were made as people failed to comply with the direction of officers. The majority of arrests were for breaches of the Coronavirus regulations,” police said in a statement on late Thursday.
Video: Arrests made under Coronavirus Act after anti-lockdown protesters and "Million Mask March" demonstrators gathered in central London.
— Insider Paper (@TheInsiderPaper) November 6, 2020
The anti-establishment Million Mask March is associated with the "hacktivist" group Anonymous.#millionmaskmarch #london #TrafalgarSquare pic.twitter.com/ze9xHu5Dxz
Day by day this is getting a little more and more uncomfortable. What possible reasonable and valid excuse do you have for this @metpoliceuk? #lockdown2uk #COVID #Manchester #London #Liverpool #Newcastle #Birmingham https://t.co/YbJKk7ieBZ
— Chris Buckley (@boocles42) November 6, 2020
VIDEO: Million Mask March (anti lockdown) protest in #London vs Million Masked Police 100+ arrests have been made in #londonprotest #Millionmaskmarch #UK pic.twitter.com/Aj6L39Kwol
— Insider Paper (@TheInsiderPaper) November 6, 2020
Commander Jane Connors has condemned the breaches of the coronavirus restrictions by the protesters.
“Our main priority this evening has been to keep Londoners safe. We are eight months into this national pandemic and frankly there can be no excuse for people to dangerously breach regulations which are there to prevent further spread of Coronavirus,” Connors said.
The commander added that the number of arrested people was likely to further increase.
The World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic on 11 March. To date, more than 48.5 million people have been infected with the coronavirus worldwide, with over 1.23 million fatalities, according to Johns Hopkins University.
The United Kingdom has confirmed more than 1.12 million coronavirus cases so far, with over 48,000 fatalities.
