Two Australian reporters assaulted and attacked during London protests

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Two Australian reporters assaulted and attacked during London protests

By Bevan Shields

London: Two Australian reporters have been attacked live on air while covering an anti-racism demonstration which turned violent outside Downing Street.

In separate incidents now being investigated by police, Nine News journalist Sophie Walsh was assaulted in Hyde Park on Wednesday morning by a man shouting "Allahu Akbar" and making stabbing motions.

Later in the day, Walsh's colleague Ben Avery was chased down a central London street by a crowd hurling bottles and other projectiles.

Walsh initially feared the man may have been wearing an explosive vest and was trying to kill her on what was the third anniversary of the deadly London Bridge terrorist attack.

"I pushed him off me but one of the scariest things was the fact that he was super calm," she said.

"Normally when someone confronts you, you scream and they sprint off. But he was lingering and saying Allahu Akbar. He had his hand in his pocket and I was just thinking 'do you have a knife, are you going to go on a stabbing spree or do you have a suicide vest under all of that and are you going to blow us all up?'"

Anger over the killing of African-American George Floyd in police custody in the United States has spilled over into the United Kingdom, where a crowd of thousands marched from Hyde Park to Parliament Square.

The protest was largely peaceful until a police officer helping to hold the crowd back from the gates of Downing Street was punched in the face.

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A scuffle broke out and items were thrown at the police, some of whom had earlier kneeled in solidarity with the protesters.

The Metropolitan Police took two people into custody over that incident.

They are also investigating the attack on Walsh and are examining footage of the incident against Avery and his cameraman.

Walsh was conducting a live-cross for the network's Adelaide 6pm bulletin ahead of the protest when a man ran up to her, started making stabbing motions into the side of her body and shouted "Allahu Akbar". She screamed loudly before telling viewers what had happened and cutting the live-cross short.

"My brother saw the footage and said, 'I have never heard you scream like that'. My sister said she feels sick to the stomach hearing it. And it's weird for me to hear it because I have never screamed like that before. You don't know what it sounds like until you really need to use it."

Her cameraman Jason Conduit grabbed a light pole and chased the man through Hyde Park. He was detained by Conduit and bystanders before police arrived. He was arrested on suspicion of making threats to kill and possession of an offensive weapon - believed to be a screwdriver.

Nine News reporter Sophie Walsh was assaulted in central London.

Nine News reporter Sophie Walsh was assaulted in central London.Credit: Nine/Twitter

The incident occurred on the third anniversary of the terrorist attack on London Bridge and Borough Market in which three men ran down pedestrians and stabbed others in a late-night rampage that killed eight people and injured nearly 50 more.

Later, Avery was talking live on air to Today hosts Allison Langdon and Karl Stefanovic when a group of men approached the reporter and cameraman Cade Thompson, started making threats and pushed the camera.

Avery pulled back but had his microphone stolen, while a security officer hired by the network to shadow the reporters held off the aggressive group of about 15 men.

"The crowd grew to about 50 or 60 people standing there and the only thing between them and us was this line of police which had arrived."

The Nine crew was escorted to their nearby car and left the scene rattled but unhurt.

Avery said he felt sympathy for the peaceful protesters whose message had been overshadowed by the violence of a minority

"We had been following that protest all day today. It was really peaceful and occasionally you would get a few comments from people who were anti-media. There was no pushing, no shoving, no aggro, and that was despite there being thousands of people. But there was this one group that hung around and caused the trouble."

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Walsh said the twin incidents demonstrated how exposed television reporters are when they are performing a live cross in the public.

"You are completely vulnerable and sometimes you forget that. Your eyes are trained on the camera, you are thinking about what you are saying and you don't really have that peripheral vision because you are thinking about how to tell the story to the viewers."

Nine - the owner and publisher of The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age - said it was offering Walsh and Avery any support they needed and said the network's international correspondents were under "enormous pressure" covering the Black Lives Matter protests which originated in the United States.

Heavily armed police struck Seven Network reporter Amelia Brace with a truncheon and hit cameraman Tim Myers with a riot shield during a peaceful protest near the White House on Monday.

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