Tensions are running high in Bristol city centre as march begins
Police have surrounded a group of counter protesters outside of the Hippodrome in Bristol as an anti-immigration march at 2pm today, Sunday, October 5, has begun.
Avon and Somerset police have been attempting to enforce an elaborate plan to try to keep the two sides apart and warned that people who don’t enter one of the four different ‘protest zones’ could be arrested or ordered to disperse.
Officers have been stopping traffic as protest groups grew and the planned march from The Centre to College Green got underway. Follow our live blog on the protests here.
By about 1.30pm around 60-80 ‘Bristol Patriot’ protesters were at the Cenotaph either waving or draped in Union Jack flags and singing songs. Meanwhile around 250 counter protesters had also gathered on The Centre, loosely penned in by police.
A small group of mainly masked counter protesters were surrounded by the Hippodrome and told by police they were being detained there to avoid a ‘breach of the peace’. The group began chanting before officers reminded them that they were not allowed to leave the area.