London’s Tower Bridge closed due to pro-Palestine demonstration

City of London police reopened the bridge at about 6.25pm on Saturday. Photograph: Vickie Flores/EPA

Police were forced to close Tower Bridge to vehicles and pedestrians following a protest by pro-Palestine demonstrators.

Some activists were seen lighting flares and waving Palestinian flags and calling for a ceasefire to the ongoing violence in Gaza, according to footage on social media. The landmark was closed by City of London police at about 5.30pm on Saturday before being reopened approximately an hour later.

City of London police wrote on X: “Tower Bridge is currently closed due to protest activity. Officers are in attendance at the scene.”

The force later wrote: “Tower Bridge reopened at around 6:25pm following an earlier protest. Thanks to @metpoliceuk for their assistance.”

It comes after the Palestine Solidarity Campaign defended the right to lobby MPs “in large numbers”. Its director, Ben Jamal, said thousands of people were “shamefully” denied entry into parliament on Wednesday as they attempted to lobby MPs to vote in favour of a ceasefire in Gaza.

The Times reported on Friday that Jamal told a crowd of demonstrators in the buildup to the protest on Wednesday: “We want so many of you to come that they will have to lock the doors of parliament itself.”

In a statement, Jamal said: “This week over 80,000 people emailed their MPs ahead of the ceasefire debate. More than 3,000 came from across the UK to lobby their MPs in person, in one of the largest physical lobbies of parliament in history.

“Shamefully, most were denied entry, ending up queueing for over four hours in the rain as extraordinary measures were introduced to limit the number who could meet their MPs face to face.

“We are aware of reports that MPs’ safety was put to the speaker as a rationale as to why he should violate normal Commons procedures to allow the Labour amendment to be heard.

“The issue of MPs’ security is serious but cannot be used to shield MPs from democratic accountability.”