Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Police suffer minor injuries during anti-vaccine protest in Parliament Square

The officers were injured while attempting to escort a police motorcyclist through the area at around 12.30pm on Saturday, the Met Police said.

Luke O'Reilly
Saturday 18 December 2021 17:43 EST
Anti-vaccination protesters demonstrate on Whitehall near Downing Street, London (Ian West/PA)
Anti-vaccination protesters demonstrate on Whitehall near Downing Street, London (Ian West/PA) (PA Wire)

Your support helps us to tell the story

From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.

At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.

The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.

Your support makes all the difference.

Police officers have suffered “minor injuries” during “scuffles” at an anti-vaccine protest in Parliament Square

The officers were injured while attempting to escort a police motorcyclist through the area at around 12.30pm on Saturday, the Metropolitan Police said in a statement.

Video footage from the protest posted on social media shows shoving between police and protesters.

Later at around 3pm a group of protesters stopped outside a shop on Regents Street, police said.

They began “directing abuse” at people inside and egging the shop until police intervened, ending the incident.

No injuries were reported.

A further incident occurred at around 4pm when beer cans a flare were thrown at officers on Whitehall

The force said that their officers were also subjected to “abuse and physical violence” elsewhere on Whitehall – leading to several more officers sustaining minor injuries.

The Met added that no arrests have been made.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in