London police arrested 19 people for deliberately breaking social distancing guidelines in protest against the rules, on the first weekend since Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a slight loosening of England’s lockdown.

The Metropolitan Police said that a group in central London’s Hyde Park had been protesting about the government’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic, and had failed to comply with repeated requests to disperse.

“It was disappointing that a relatively small group in Hyde Park came together to protest the regulations in clear breach of the guidance, putting themselves and others at risk of infection,” Laurence Taylor, Deputy Assistant Commissioner at the Metropolitan Police, said in a statement, according to Reuters.

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