Black Lives Matter activists on Saturday defaced the Abraham Lincoln statue in Parliament Square, London with graffiti during a demonstration against the killing of George Floyd.
Video and images from the demonstration show protesters scaling the statue and spray painting the names of George Floyd, Freddie Gray, and other black people perceived to have been killed unjustly at the hands of police officers.
One video clip shows a protester being lifted up on top of the statue to loud roars from the mob.
Cardboard signs which read “BLM”, “ABOLISH THE POLICE”, “RACISM IS A PANDEMIC TOO”, and “SILENCE IS VILENCE” were also duct-taped to one side of the statue’s pedestal.
The protest, said to have drawn about 15,000 people, started off largely peaceful but later turned violent in the early evening when a crowd 400 to 500 people began hurling bottles and other objects at the police near Downing Street.