Six people have been arrested during as violence broke out at a St George’s Day event in central London.
The Metropolitan Police confirmed that one person was arrested outside a pub in Whitehall on suspicion of assault while a further three were arrested on suspicion of assaulting an emergency worker.
Another man was arrested on suspicion of animal cruelty after a police horse was targeted on Whitehall, and another man for being drunk and disorderly.
Violence broke out an hour before the St George’s Day event was scheduled to begin at around 2pm, with police footage showing men draped in England flags clashing with officers.
The Met had warned in advance of the event that it believed those planning to attend included “far-right groups and groups linked to football clubs travelling from elsewhere in the UK”.
The force posted a video on X showing the disturbance, writing: “The event is not due to start for an hour and regrettably officers are already dealing with disorder.”
“There is an area allocated for this event in Richmond Terrace.
“This group went past it and continued up Whitehall. When officers formed a cordon and asked the group to turn round, they reacted by violently forcing their way through. Mounted officers intervened with horses to restore the cordon.”
The video footage shows one man appearing to hit a police horse with an umbrella, while some of those gathered can be heard shouting “I’m England ‘Till I die, I’m England ‘Till I die”” and “No Surrender”.
An update given just after 3pm, the time at which the event was actually due to begin, said there had been “no further incidents since that altercation” and that Whitehall had been reopened to traffic after a closure earlier to deal with “people moving away from the allocated event area”.
A couple of hours later, just before 5pm, another video was posted on X showing fresh clashes outside a pub and a scuffle between demonstrators and officers.
Earlier in the day, the Met said that a number of people gathered in the Waterloo area before the event in Whitehall were wearing face coverings, where a Section 60AA order was in place giving officers the power to require the removal of face coverings in the boroughs of Westminster and Lambeth.
A separate Section 60 order, giving officers additional search powers, was also in force in the same area to prevent crime and disorder, the force added.
It was later withdraw but the Met said section 35 dispersal order remains in place and officers are patrolling the area this evening.
St George’s Day is a celebration of the patron saint of England celebrated on 23 April every year.
After the incident, a group gathered on Whitehall opposite Downing Street where there was also a large police presence.
Other video footage posted on social media appeared to show a man being detained by police at the event.
Attendees waved St George’s Cross flags and listened to speeches, including by Tommy Robinson who was cleared of breaching a dispersal order at court on Tuesday.
