LONDON, Nov 20: Around 100,000 protesters marched through London and tore down a mock statue of visiting US President George Bush on Thursday.

Many of the protesters said they were convinced that Mr Bush’s policies were to blame for the day’s attacks on British interests in Turkey.

Demonstrators of all ages beat drums and blew whistles along a five-kilometre route that took them past parliament and the end of Downing Street, where crowds paused to jeer towards Prime Minister Tony Blair’s office.

When they reached Trafalgar Square, protesters felled a six-metre papier mache statue of Mr Bush in a parody of the toppling of a statue of Saddam Hussein after US. and British troops swept into Baghdad in April. In the effigy’s top pocket was a puppet with a grinning Blair face.

“Bush and Blair said they were fighting a war against terror to make the world a safer place for people,” said Paul Burrows, 38, a university lecturer. “They haven’t done that. Going out bombing people just gives them more reason to hate the West.”

At a joint news conference earlier in the day, Mr Bush and Mr Blair declared their determination to wipe out terrorism wherever it occurred.

That stance won little backing among demonstrators angry at the occupation of Iraq and suspicious of American motives.—Reuters