G20 Riot police charge protesters

Apr 1 - Riot police stage baton charges as hundreds of demonstrators protest G20 summit.

Riot police staged baton charges to try to disperse several hundred protesters gathered around the Bank of England in the heart of London's financial centre on Wednesday (April 1) after a day of protest around the G20 summit.The charges against a hard core of anti-capitalist demonstrators appeared aimed at clearing the area before nightfall. Bottles flew through the air towards police lines and police on horseback stood by ready to intervene. Some protesters set fire to an effigy of a banker hanging from a lamppost. Demonstrators had clashed with riot police and smashed the windows of a bank in protest against a system they said had robbed the poor to benefit the rich. Hundreds of protesters converged on a branch of the Royal Bank of Scotland, shattering three windows. Rescued by the government in October, RBS has become a lightning rod for public anger in Britain over banker excess blamed for the crisis. The protests were timed to coincide with a G20 meeting of the world's leading and emerging economies.