Close to hld a million people protesting against immigration have marched through the United Kingdom’s capital, London, in one of the country’s biggest patriotic demonstrations, with some protesters clashing with the police and wounding at least 26 officers.
The violence at the "Unite the Kingdom" march last 13 September came as police tried to keep the conservative protesters apart from a group of some 5,000 rival demonstrators gathered at White Hall in central London.
London’s Metropolitan Police said the march, organized by anti-immigrant activist Tommy Robinson, drew an estimated 450,000 people, far surpassing expectations.
The police force said its officers faced "unacceptable violence" from some of the protesters and that four of them sustained serious injuries, among them broken teeth, a possible broken nose, a concussion, a prolapsed disc and a head injury.
"There is no doubt that many came to exercise their lawful right to protest, but there were many who came intent on violence," Assistant Commissioner Matt Twist said in a statement.
"They confronted officers, engaging in physical and verbal abuse and making a determined effort to breach cordons in place to keep everyone safe."
At least 25 people were arrested over the violence, Twist said, describing the detentions as "just the start".
"We are identifying those who were involved in the disorder, and they can expect to face robust police action in the coming days and weeks," he added.
Robinson’s latest "Unite the Kingdom" march comes at the tail end of a highly charged summer in the UK that featured several protests staged outside hotels housing asylum seekers in England, following the arrest of an Ethiopian man who was later convicted of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl in a London suburb.
Other speakers at Robinson’s event included US billionaire Elon Musk, who joined via video-link, French far-right politician Eric Zemmour, and Petr Bystron of the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
"There’s something beautiful about being British, and what I see happening here is a destruction of Britain, initially a slow erosion, but rapidly increasing erosion of Britain with massive uncontrolled migration," Musk said, calling for a change of government in the UK.