Pic 2

As police moved in on the small crowd that had been doing the actual sitting down in the road (they were now standing up), we saw several people slapped in the face and pushed very aggressively by a series of police officers.

Pic 3

The police had removed one side of their cordon - the street leading back to the US Embassy - and quite a few on the edges were already moving towards it. However those on the opposite side were being treated very heavily. Here you can see police officer pushing people over ontop of others sitting in the road.

Some people were grabbed by police (for no apparent reason other than perhaps taking part in the sit down). Here a quite large man is pulled back out of the crowd, and wrestled to the ground before being handcuffed.

Pic 5

Most of those who had been engaging in the sit down were now being pushed into the street leading back towards the US embassy, but the crowd remained in good spirits. More arrests were made around Oxford St and down towards the US embassy (these pics are near to the US embassy). From the 5-6 at least arrested we heard at least one person had been told they were being arrested for the serious offence of affray, but it seems that they were all held under section 14 of the public order act (this is where police say protests are only allowed in a certain location).

People were then filtered into the area where the US embassy protest had previously been held. They were detained for some time but continued to chant and make speeches, before being released in groups or 5-6. There were many who seemed shocked at the police behaviour against what was a chilled and mixed crowd, but almost all said they are still determined to continue protesting against the war. If the tactic was to scare people off, it most certainly failed.

pic

grosvenor square where sit downers were pushed to and detained by police before being released in small groups.