Protesters stage sit in at Waterloo Station calling for Gaza ceasefire

Around 100 protesters chanted 'ceasefire now' in sit in protest at busy station
Police officers line up on the concourse after pro-Palestinian protesters took part in a sit-in
PA Wire
Josh Salisbury18 November 2023

Pro-Palestinian protesters held sit-in protests calling for a ceasefire in Gaza at major UK train stations on Saturday afternoon, including at Waterloo.

At least five protesters were arrested at Waterloo, said police, while other small sit in protests were held at Manchester Victoria and Leeds station.

The British Transport Police issued Section 14a orders prohibiting protests on Saturday at many of London's main rail stations from 10am to 11pm. 

But shortly after 2.30pm the force posted on Twitter that a group of approximately 200 protesters had arrived at London Bridge station, which dispersed within five minutes.

Around 4pm, the force said crowds had also started to gather at Waterloo station. “Anyone breaching the s14a order in place is committing an offence and will be arrested," the force said.

Around 100 pro-Palestinian protesters sat in the centre of Waterloo station and chanted “ceasefire now".

Protesters were removed from the station by police, with at least five arrested. No rail services were disrupted.

The Met Police said the protesters made their way to Parliament Square, with the force saying the group was also partially made up of Just Stop Oil demonstrators who earlier held a march.

The force issued a dispersal order and said ten arrests were made throughout Saturday's protests, including a "prominent JSO activist."

"Today we made 10 arrests - four in relation to the JSO protest and six in relation to the pro-Palestinian protests," said the force.

"Offences include breach of bail conditions, public order, racially aggravated public order, inciting racial hatred, affray and obstruction."

A similar protest took place at Waterloo - Britain’s busiest train station - at the end of October.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in