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She said that the ambulance arrived about 10 minutes later, by which time the man had gone very white and was having breathing difficulties.

She said that by the time police medics took over from her friend, the man had fallen unconscious.

Elias Stoakes, 25, also a student at Queen Mary, from Exeter in Devon, said: “There were a lot of people around him trying to help him and asking for medics.

“One or maybe two plastic bottles were thrown, but it was by people further back in the crowd who did not know what was going on.

Expert View

They were spat on, hit and had vile abuse screamed at them, but does it give police the right to indiscriminately hit anyone in their way?

Adam Fresco, Crime Correspondent

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Police watchdog to investigate G20 death

The Independent Police Complaints Commission are to examine circumstances of man's death at G20 protests in City

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“There definitely wasn’t a rain of bottles. There were lots of us gathered around him telling people to give him space.

“The idea that protesters did not care is completely false.”

A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police said that officers arrived on the scene to help and had to move the casualty away for urgent treatment.

The man was eventually pronounced dead at hospital. A post-mortem examination will take place today.

According to one protester at the scene he was in his 30s.

The Met Police spokesman said: “A member of the public went to a police officer on a cordon in Birchin Lane, junction with Cornhill to say that there was a man who had collapsed round the corner.

“That officer sent two police medics through the cordon line and into St Michael’s Alley where they found a man who had stopped breathing.”

Police moved him to an area outside the Royal Exchange Building where they attempted resuscitation.

The spokesman added: “The officers took the decision to move him as during this time a number of missiles – believed to be bottles – were being thrown at them.”

London Ambulance Service said that “extensive efforts” were made to resuscitate the man both at the scene and on the way to hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

A spokeswoman for the IPCC said: “IPCC investigators will be assessing the circumstances throughout the day. They will be examining CCTV and attending the post-mortem this afternoon, as is usual in cases of this nature.

"When all the available information has been assessed, the IPCC will make a decision about the level of involvement it needs to have in progressing the investigation into this case.”

At lunchtime today, officers went to two addresses that police believe are being used as squats by some of those people involved in the violent disorder yesterday.

The address at Rampart Street, E1, has around 20 people inside it. They will be detained on suspicion of violent disorder but released immediately if they are not of interest to police. Officers are at the addresses acting on information about people wanted. The address at Earl Street, EC2, has about 60 people inside. Anyone inside will be dealt with as per Rampart Street.

Masked anarchists smashed their way into a Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) branch in Central London yesterday and police chiefs said that officers faced “high levels of violence” in isolated incidents throughout the day.

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