LONDON, England - March 27, 2011 - Masked rogue protesters battled police and attacked landmark London shops and hotels Saturday, overshadowing a peaceful march by more than a quarter of a million Britons against government cuts.
In the biggest rally in the capital since protests against the Iraq war in 2003, adults and children joined a huge demonstration called by unions against the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition's austerity measures.
But police said 202 people were arrested and 35 people were injured when a small group of "criminals" split off from the main protest and rampaged through the capital's commercial district smashing up shops and banks.
"I think it's a game of two halves. Two hundred and fifty thousand people came to central London and protested peacefully," said Commander Bob Broadhurst of Scotland Yard, who led the police operation.
"But what we have had unfortunately is a group of criminals, nothing to do with that march, have decided to on their own steam attack buildings in central London and attack police officers," he told Sky News.
Several hundred black-clad protesters covering their faces with scarves hurled fireworks, petrol bombs and paint at police, AFP reporters saw.
Clothes store Topshop and banks HSBC and Lloyds had their windows smashed, while some protesters hurled missiles at London's Ritz Hotel. Others lit a bonfire at Oxford Circus.
A group of protesters occupied luxury food store Fortnum and Mason and sprayed graffiti on the building until police sealed off the premises and arrested those coming out.
Police later urged anyone not involved in the protest to move away from the famed Trafalgar Square area, saying that "officers are coming under sustained attack."
Five police officers and 30 members of the public were wounded in the violence, with 16 people including one police officer needing hospital treatment, Scotland Yard said.
It said the 202 arrests were for public order offenses, criminal damage, aggravated trespass and violent disorder. About 4,500 police officers were deployed for the protest.
