A takeaway delivery driver was forced to cancel an order for refugees living behind a police barricade after a booing mob surrounded him.
The Uber Eats rider was given a police escort to try and get to through the protesters guarding the Britannia Hotel in Canary Wharf on Sunday evening.
But the baying mob stood in his way and he was forced to turn back with the Five Guys order under police protection as the anti-migrant protesters chanted ‘scum’ and ‘go away’.
It came after a flash mob of young men in balaclavas descended on the protest at migrants living in the 4-star hotel.
Setting off red and white flares and chanting ‘England’ and ‘Keir Starmer is a w****’ repeatedly, the group struggled to break through police lines to join the other peaceful protesters, including local mothers and children listening to God Save The Queen on boomboxes.
Chants of ‘send them home’ broke out while one man rattled the metal fence outside the hotel in full view of police officers.
One guest at the hotel could be seen in a facemask sitting on the front steps staring at the angry mob on the other side of a chain link fence.
A group of women, all dressed in pink, adopted a Just Stop Oil-like sit-in protest in the road outside the hotel.
(Credits: George Cracknell Wright)
Protesters booed others going in and out of the building as eggs were reportedly dropped from surrounding towers on them forcing the group to briefly flee.
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At least one man was detained after an angry confrontation with officers.
Onlookers chanted ‘shame’ as he was carried away.
It is the latest in a series of demonstrations over the use of hotels to house asylum seekers.
On Saturday, the Metropolitan Police made nine arrests after rival groups gathered outside the Thistle City Barbican Hotel in Islington, north London.
A protest and counter-protest also took place in Newcastle outside the New Bridge Hotel and four people were arrested on suspicion of public order offences, Northumbria Police said.
Scotland Yard said plans were in place to “respond to any protest activity in the vicinity of other hotels in London being used to accommodate asylum seekers”.
Elsewhere, Essex Police placed a number of restrictions on a planned protest in Epping on Sunday evening.
The force ordered that the demonstration should finish by 8.30pm and must take place in designated areas outside the Bell Hotel, which has been the focus of a series of protests over the last few weeks.
Police have also placed requirements on the removal of face coverings until 3am on Monday and have the power to direct anyone committing or suspected of committing anti-social behaviour to leave the area until 8am on Monday.
A Met spokesperson said: ‘Officers are deployed in the vicinity of the Britannia International Hotel in Canary Wharf this afternoon where a protest is taking place.
‘At one point, officers intervened after flares were let off in the crowd. Several people were searched. No further flares were found.
‘One man was arrested on suspicion of assaulting an emergency worker after an officer was pushed. He was taken into custody.
‘Officers remain in the area to provide reassurance to local residents and businesses, to ensure that any further protest takes place peacefully, and to respond to any incidents.’