Shillong, May 7: At King Charles’s coronation on Saturday, the United Kingdom Police arrested the chief of the anti-monarchy group Republic along with 51 other people.
Prior to the parade, Republic said that its leader Graham Smith had been arrested, and images of police removing protesters’ placards appeared on social media.
“We absolutely understand public concern following the arrests we made this morning,” Commander Karen Findlay of the London Metropolitan police said in a statement.
“Over the past 24 hours there has been a significant police operation after we received information that protesters were determined to disrupt the Coronation procession”, the police said.
While King Charles and Queen Camilla entered Westminster Abbey and while the service was broadcast over loudspeakers, demonstrators booed them and pledged to stage the largest anti-British monarchy demonstration in modern history.