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A cushion is taped to the boxed-up statue of Winston Churchill as counter-protestors gather in Parliament Square, central London. /Ben Stansall/AFP
Thousands of people have gathered in central London despite police and the mayor urging people not to attend protests.
London's mayor Sadiq Khan and the Metropolitan Police had asked people to stay away from a planned Black Lives Matter march because of fears there would be clashes with counter-protests by far-right groups – in addition to the coronavirus-spreading possibilities of mass demonstrations.
Khan tweeted that protestors should "stay at home and find a safe way to make your voice heard," before adding: "To the extreme far-right groups hijacking this crucial cause: Londoners have no time for your hatred."
There have been Black Lives Matter protests in a number of countries in Europe, sparked
by the killing of George Floyd
at the hands of police officers as he was being arrested in the U.S. last month.
02:09
The focus of the debate in some places has now moved on to statues of figures linked to the slave trade and racism.
In Belgium, King Leopold II's legacy with colonialism and slavery has come to the fore. There are statues of him around the country and one in Antwerp has been removed by the authorities after being vandalised.
In the UK statues of slave traders have been targeted, including the toppling of a monument to Edward Colston in Bristol.
A statue of Britain's World War II leader Winston Churchill was boarded up in London along with monuments of other historical figures, ahead of Saturday's demonstrations.
Churchill's statue outside Parliament was sprayed with graffiti last week during demonstrations and on Friday, prime minister Boris Johnson said it was "absurd and shameful" that the monument was at risk.
01:09
The George Floyd protests have provoked a debate on statues and whether they glorify racist figures from the past or should be considered in historical context and used as a memorial, so new generations do not forget what happened.
The role of police has also been questioned after the Floyd case. In France, law enforcers claim they have been unfairly picked out. They marched in Paris on Friday and protested in other cities, including Bordeaux, claiming they have been scapegoated by the government.
Fabien Vanhemelryck, secretary-general of the Alliance union, said that the country's police force were the most closely monitored in the world.
He added: "Therefore when there are certain abuses by a tiny minority, let us not stigmatize all police officers."
