Europe
6 years ago

Thousands join Trump protest in Scottish City

Photo: Reuters
Photo: Reuters

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Updated :

Thousands have taken to the streets of Edinburgh, the capital city of Scotland, in a third day of protests against US Donald Trump's UK visit.

They demonstrated as the US president teed off on the fairways of his Turnberry golf resort on the Ayrshire coast.

Trump is in Scotland with his wife and family on a private visit ahead of his summit with Vladimir Putin in Helsinki on Monday, reports BBC.

About 10,000 were expected at the protest in Scotland's capital.

Protesters are walking from the Scottish parliament to the Meadows for a "carnival of resistance".

Hundreds more gathered as close as they were allowed at Turnberry, where lines of police officers ringed the resort.

Trump - whose mother was Scottish - and members of his family are spending the weekend at the hotel he bought in 2014 before departing on Sunday for the meeting with the Russian leader in Finland the following day.

The president's visit to Scotland has been accompanied by a major security operation.

Police snipers are positioned on tiers of temporary scaffolding overlooking the golf course, with a large number of other officers patrolling the grounds and surrounding area.

Just as Trump entered the resort on Friday evening, a paragliding protester breached a no-fly zone, coming close to the hotel.

The aircraft held a banner reading: "Trump: well below par #resist".

Police have confirmed that they are trying to trace the individual involved.

The stunt was reportedly staged by Greenpeace.

Ben Stewart, a spokesman for the organisation, told the BBC: "It wasn't dangerous at all. We let the police know about 10 or 15 minutes before that we were coming in.

"We phoned them, we had someone on the police line who informed them. We thought it was important that the president actually saw a real-life protester.

"There's tens, maybe hundreds of thousands of people on the streets around the UK."

Police insisted they wanted to strike a balance between "protection and public safety and the public's right to peacefully protest".

The Edinburgh event is also featuring the giant Trump Baby balloon, which was banned from both Turnberry and Holyrood.

Thousands of people protested in London on Friday against Trump's UK visit.

Protesters also filled George Square in Glasgow ahead of his arrival in Scotland.

However, the UK government's International Trade Secretary Liam Fox told BBC Breakfast that the anti-Trump campaigners were "an embarrassment to themselves".

He believed that the large scale protests in London and other cities on Friday "did not reflect the genuine good manners and hospitality of the British people"

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