Protesters clash with riot police

LONDON — Several thousand protesters jammed the streets of London's financial district — known as "The City" — Wednesday, and a few hundred battled riot police in a brief spasm of violence that reflected a widespread anti-capitalist fervor just as world leaders gathered to try to resolve the global financial crisis.

The violence, between the offices of two major banks now weighted with ugly symbolism, the Bank of England and the headquarters of the Royal Bank of Scotland, erupted just after midday. It turned a peaceful march of about 4,000 students, academics, anarchists and others into an ugly, pitched battle involving 40 to 50 riot police officers on foot and horseback and a few hundred protesters. Several officers and protesters were reported injured.

Late in the day, police said a man had been reported to have collapsed near one of the protest camps and responding officers were unable to resuscitate him. He was pronounced dead at a hospital. It was unclear if the man was a protester, and the cause of death was under investigation.

Two windows in the Royal Bank of Scotland building were smashed, and masked youths made off with computers that the crowd ripped apart. Onlookers were infuriated by the sight of police officers drawing blood as they swung their truncheons while guarding the bank, whose bailout by the government as it teetered near bankruptcy made it Britain's most prominent symbol of the economic downturn.

"The police are defending the very people they should be fighting, the bankers," said Liam Edin, a student.

On Threadneedle Street, a narrow road normally plied by financiers and central bankers, cries of "Our streets!" and "Kill the bankers!" rang out, and protesters waved revolutionary flags and hanged bankers in effigy.

The throng began dispersing after the police and protesters clashed. At least 26 arrests were reported, although the British Broadcasting Corp. put the number at 63. Police officials said more than 5,000 officers were deployed across London for the summit meeting.

Most of the demonstrators intended their protest to remain peaceful. "We are not here to cause trouble," said Kim Winter, 24, a student from Tottenham, in north London. "I am against any money-grabbers and capitalists who are not prepared to fight for the little people; we are the backbone of this country."

The march was largely the brainchild of Chris Knight, a self-described anarchist and an anthropologist at the University of East London, who has been the public voice of a loose umbrella group of environmentalists, academics and left-wing activists known as the G-20 Meltdown.

Material from The Associated Press is included in this report.