By Bob Sherwood, Salamander Davoudi, Roger Blitz, Alistair Gray, Tim Bradshaw, and Shyamantha Asokan
Anti-capitalist demonstrations spiralled into violence in the City on Wednesday as protesters smashed their way into a bank branch sparking clashes with riot police.
Demonstrators broke windows at the RBS branch on Threadneedle Street, threw missiles and smoke bombs and some forced their way inside. The building was daubed with graffiti, including the slogan “thieves”, and activists vandalised the branch, throwing out computers, chairs and office equipment.
The flashpoint came after activists had pledged peaceful demonstrations under the G20 Meltdown banner ahead of the summit of world leaders at the ExCeL centre in Docklands today.