Protesters wrestled to ground and arrested after disrupting London Marathon with red paint

Protesters leaped into the road as London Marathon runners approached and hurled red paint onto Tower Bridge.

Footage from the event showed how they were pushed to the side and wrestled to the ground, before a group of police officers surrounded them and they were arrested around 10.35am this morning.

The activist group Youth Demand, which is calling for a trade embargo on Israel, said their supporters jumped over the barriers and threw the substance in front of the men’s elite race.

An image shared by Youth Demand shows two people standing in the middle of the road wearing t-shirts that said ‘Youth Demand: Stop Arming Israel’.

City of London police quickly arrested them, the group said.

Youth Demand named the two activists as Willow Holland, 18, from Bristol, and Cristy North, a live-in carer from Nottingham.

Miss Holland was quoted by the group as saying: ‘I am taking action with Youth Demand because I have run out of other options: thousands are being killed in Gaza, our Government is making no effort to stop it and no other course of action, marches or rallies, has worked. I refuse to be complicit in a genocide funded by our politicians.’

Ms North was quoted as saying: ‘I’m taking action today at the London marathon because the people in Palestine are running out of time. We have tried all other avenues to get the Government to stop arming Israel and yet our Government is still enabling a genocide.

‘They are making the UK people complicit in breaking UK domestic law by using our taxes to arm a genocidal state, breaking humanitarian international law.’

The BBC TV feed cut to the elite men’s race moments after the leaders had crossed Tower Bridge and there appeared to be no impact on the race.

More than 56,000 people are racing the 26.2-mile course through the capital today, with thousands more supporters with banners lining the streets of the capital to cheer on the runners and wave to their loved ones.

Participants, including a pair dressed as shower gel bottles, could be seen taking selfies and checking their watches as they set off.

London could set a new record for the world’s biggest marathon, which is currently held by the TCS New York Marathon in November when there were 55,646 finishers.

Among the participants are David Stancombe and Sergio Aguiar, whose daughters Elsie Dot Stancombe, seven, and Alice da Silva Aguiar, nine, were murdered in the Southport mass stabbing last summer.

In a video message posted on X, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer wished the pair ‘the very best of luck’.

He added: ‘This is an incredible way to honour the memory of your precious daughters and the entire nation is in awe of your courage and your resilience.

‘We’ll all be with you, every single step of the way.’

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.