Byline: Ian Gallagher and George Arbuthnott
EXTREMISTS brought violent chaos to Central London yesterday after hijacking the much-heralded trade union protest against public spending cuts.
Splinter groups broke off from the main body of more than 250,000 demonstrators marching from Victoria Embankment to Hyde Park to launch an assault on the capital's main shopping district.
Some were hellbent on storming - or destroying - any London landmarks synonymous with luxury or money. Others targeted companies associated with tax avoidance.
Hundreds laid siege to The Ritz hotel, attacking it with paint and smokebombs. A Porsche showroom was also smashed up and upmarket department store Fortnum & Mason was occupied by about 1,000 activists.
On the streets outside, anarchists battled police. Some officers in Oxford Street were attacked with lightbulbs filled with ammonia, a sinister new weapon that can be assembled by following simple instructions on the internet. Other officers were hit with paint and flying bottles.
By the end of the day 75 protesters had been arrested and 28 people injured. Five police officers were also hurt and one was taken to hospital.
Scotland Yard commander Bob Broadhurst said of the rioters: 'I wouldn't call them protesters. They are engaging in criminal activities for their own ends.'
Salmon sandwiches amid the rioting
BREAKING past a small group of police, nearly 1,000 protesters charged into Fortnum & Mason, famed for its picnic hampers and for delivering tea to the Queen.
After forcing themselves through the ground floor doors into the area selling luxury cheese and chocolate at around 4pm, the mob ran amok. Afternoon shoppers, among them dozens of Japanese and American tourists, fled up the stairs.
Activists made speeches on the ornate spiral staircase and black-clad anarchists, wearing face masks to hide their identity, shouted abuse at customers and launched into tirades about class war. One threatened to attack customers in a restaurant, outraged that they were carrying on eating salmon sandwiches.
A group of menacing extremists stood under the crystal chandeliers and hung posters from metal stair-rails. They threatened to smash display cases full of luxury goods if the police tried to drag them out. Two others daubed anarchist symbols on the walls. Some activists from a group called UK Uncut, which protests against tax avoidance, helped clean up the mess. Police finally cleared the store of protesters just before 7pm.
Campaigners claimed they targeted the 300-year-old store because its owners are at the centre of a [pounds sterling]40 million tax avoidance row. Protesters also occupied Vodafone, Boots and BHS stores on Oxford Street for the same reason .
Sally Mason, one of the protesters who occupied the store, said: 'Fortnum & Mason is a symbol of wealth and greed. It is where the Royal Family and the superrich shop.'
Guests evacuated as windows smashed
FURTHER along Piccadilly, extremists laid siege to The Ritz hotel. The building was pelted with paint, fireworks and smoke bombs. Police forced back a hard core of around 30 protesters, whose faces were covered by balaclavas and scarves, after several of the ground floor windows were smashed.
Unable to get inside, they instead daubed the words 'fat cats' on the walls and launched paint missiles through open windows on the first floor. Around 50 people were evacuated to a function room at the back of the building. Windows of the restaurant's Rivoli Bar were also pelted with paint, while those of Ritz Fine Jewellery were smashed. The famous afternoon tea was cancelled and walls were daubed with slogans.
Neil Cox, a 30-year-old project manager from Redhill, Surrey, was staying in a room on the fourth floor overlooking Piccadilly, where the attack was launched.
He said: 'I could feel the reverberation of missiles and paint hitting the building and other windows.'
The Ritz restaurant was reopened after an hour but only guests were allowed entrance to the building following the attack. Carla Sibley had travelled from Bournemouth to celebrate her 65th birthday with her three children, but was refused entry. She said: 'We booked to have tea four months ago and it's ruined.'
'Smash the banks' daubed on walls
AROUND 300 extremists tried to storm a branch of HSBC in Cambridge Circus.
They threw paint at police officers and smashed windows. Some of the group painted slogans such as 'Smash the banks' and 'Thieves' on the building before trying to get inside.
The branch was quickly surrounded by riot police and it is thought that one protester was questioned inside.
A Piccadilly branch of Santander was also targeted by rioters who tried to break in.
'Pay your tax, Philip Green'
OWNED by retail tycoon Sir Philip Green, Topshop was another main target. For several hours, shoppers were trapped inside the Oxford Street store as masked protesters pelted police who were defending it with rocks and paint bombs. Elsewhere along the shopping street, black-clad activists smashed windows and left officers ducking for cover and spattered in paint.
Topshop customers - mainly teenage girls - were still going in and out of the front door seconds before the missiles started flying. Many of them were trapped inside as chaos erupted outside.
The protesters chanted, 'Pay your tax, Philip Green'.
The tycoon has saved an estimated [pounds sterling]285 million in tax by paying a [pounds sterling]1.2 billion bonus to his Monacobased wife Tina.
CAPTION(S):
Protesters target Fortnum & Mason in Piccadilly, above left. Above right: A policeman who had paint hurled in his face by protesters A protester lashes out, left, after breaking into an HSBC branch in Cambridge Circus ATTACK: A demonstrator batters HSBC, right, and, far right, protesters on Fortnum & Mason's canopy
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