Cuts protest violence sparks new fears for Royal wedding

One ringleader warned yesterday that the April 29 ceremony was “a recipe for disaster”.

Predictions that extremists would try to hijack the 250,000-strong public sector march had been widely aired but the 4,500 police on duty were still unable to stop masked gangs from running amok.

They attacked banks, fast-food restaurants and flagship stores that included Fortnum & Mason, grocer to the Royal Family for 150 years.

The shock of yesterday’s violence causes a huge headache for police planning security for the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton, less than five weeks away. Any violence seen on televisions across the world would be a disaster for Britain’s image.

The anarchists behind yesterday’s riot are also preparing to “curse” next month’s wedding with a bizarre plot in the shape of a giant occult symbol.

They aim to occupy five destinations to represent a five-pointed star or pentacle, a symbol revered by Satanists; the Hilton Hotel in Park Lane, Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, Westminster Abbey and Buckingham Palace, in a bid to stretch police lines and throw William and Kate’s big day into chaos.

They hope to get the ceremony abandoned or at least moved. Yesterday was said to be “phase one” of the plot.

Ringleader Chris Knight, a university professor sacked for inciting violence at the 2009 G20 demo, warned: “Staging the wedding in that sensitive place at this turbulent time is a recipe for disaster.

“No one objects to a couple displaying their affection but public extravagance on this scale seems an insult and provocation to the rest of us.”

Yesterday riot police were embroiled in running battles with masked rioters, who called themselves the “Black Bloc”. They smashed windows of banks and luxury stores. One officer was taken to hospital and four others were injured. At one point rioters hurled light bulbs filled with ammonia at police.

The flagship Topshop store in Oxford Circus was attacked while branches of HSBC, the Royal Bank of Scotland and Santander were pelted with paint, food and bottles.

Police struggled to contain rioters as they surged through the narrow streets of Soho towards the West End, letting off fireworks, flares and smoke bombs. A banner hung from lampposts declared: “Keep warm, burn the rich.”

In Shaftesbury Avenue they used a wheelie bin to smash their way into an HSBC branch. A police surveillance team hoping to film rioters was forced to flee.

Later they left Fortnum & Mason and tried to invade Lillywhite’s department store setting fire to an industrial rubbish bin outside. Saghar Siraj, 20, from east London, who works at the store, said: “We were terrified. They ran at the doors. Luckily we were able to close them but they tried to set fire to the building.”

Police made 157 arrests for public order and criminal damage offences. Last night Commander Bob Broadhurst, who led the police operation, admitted: “We’ll never have enough officers to protect every building in central London. It cannot be done.”

He said the rioters, who “engaged in criminal activities for their own ends” were “quite mobile”, adding: “It’s been hard to get hold of them.”

Former Scotland Yard anti-terrorism chief Andy Hayman said police needed to be more “ruthless” and must “start to be more intrusive and active ahead of any planned illegal demonstration”.

The scenes overshadowed the biggest protest seen in central London since the million-strong march against the Iraq war in February 2003.

Labour leader Ed Miliband told the rally in Hyde Park the vast majority on the streets were law-abiding, hard-working people. He said: “We know what the Government will say: that this is a march of the minority. They are so wrong.

“David Cameron: you wanted to create the big society, this is the big society: the big society united against what your Government is doing to our country.”

However he was heckled when he told the crowd some cuts were needed, but he attacked the pace and scale of the coalition’s spending squeeze.

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