Tens of thousands join Black Lives Matter protest in London

London police chief Cressida Dick said 27 officers had been injured in “shocking and completely unacceptable” assaults during anti-racism protests over the past week, including 14 on Saturday.

In this video below shows global protests over the killing of George Floyd:

Two were seriously hurt and an officer who fell from her horse underwent surgery.

Authorities had urged protesters not to gather in London again on Sunday, warning they risked spreading COVID-19, the respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus.

But demonstrators still packed the road outside the US Embassy on the south bank of the River Thames.

“Now is the time: we need to do something. We have become so complacent in the UK but the racism that killed George Floyd was born in the UK in terms of colonialism and white supremacy,” said 28-year-old Hermione Lake, who was holding a sign reading: “white silence = violence”.

“We need to completely gut the system. … We need massive reform, massive change.”

The May 25 death of Floyd, an unarmed African American, has sparked demonstrations around the world over police treatment of ethnic minorities. A white police officer detaining him knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes.

In Bristol in western England, demonstrators tore down a statue of 17th century slave trader Edward Colston.