AMID chants and jeers, the screech of whistles and the beat of drums, tens of thousands of people took to the streets of London yesterday in a protest against President Bush and the war on Iraq.

Organisers claimed that up to 200,000 people took part in the protest, which they hailed as the largest midweek demonstration in the capital. Police put the figure at nearer 100,000.

With more than 5,100 police officers on duty, Scotland Yard said that its main concern had been to protect the marchers from terrorist attack. “As we have seen, terrorists really don’t care who they blow up, or who they target,” Andy Trotter, the Deputy Assistant Commissioner, said.

“They would have no compunction to take out demonstrators. And that’s a very difficult message to get across.”

By early evening the number of people arrested during protests since the President’s arrival on Tuesday evening had risen to 53, but police said that no one was detained at yesterday’s march, which remained a largely good-natured affair.

There was almost a carnival atmosphere in Trafalgar Square as a 40ft, gold-painted effigy of President Bush was pulled to the ground in a photo-opportunity intended to echo the toppling of the 40ft statue of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad’s Shahid Square on April 9.

Many of the protesters were young people, apparently college or school students, while most of the others were far older. Few people of working age appeared to be taking part.

Many wore unflattering masks of the President and Tony Blair, while others brandished placards bearing slogans such as “Thank God There’s No Oil in England”, “An American War Wolf in London”, and “You Say Potato, We Say F*** You”.

At the head of the march was Damon Albarn, leader of the band Blur, who said: “My reason for being here is the same as those taken by people collectively. Bush’s visit is an opportunity to re-express what they feel.”

Anas Altikriti, spokesman for the Muslim Association of Britain, one of the groups that organised the protest, hailed the event as a celebration of belief.

“Once again we speak loudly, we stand proud and we stand shoulder to shoulder with our brothers around the world who are victims of the policies of Tony Blair and George W. Bush,” he said.

Caroline Lucas, of the Green Party, told the crowd gathered in Trafalgar Square that the bombing in Istanbul “shows us our world is anything but more secure today”.

She added: “Our Prime Minister is an ally of George Bush but the British people are not. We are not anti the American people. We are against a US Administration which has turned the United States of America into the greatest rogue state in the world.”

Sally Maxwell, 67, from Bristol, said: “This isn’t anti-American. Bush worries a lot of people. He represents a whole right-wing, protectionist and globally narrow minded grab-what-you-can view.”

Brother Oswin, who joined the march in the brown robe and sandals of the Roman Catholic Society of St Francis, said: “I doubt we’ll achieve much today, but at least I’ll have registered my protest.”

Police had earlier cautioned that there were up to 1,000 hard-core demonstrators travelling to London from Germany and France with the intention of causing trouble, but as the demonstration began to wind down last night that threat had not materialised.

A number of Americans took part in the protest, some of them marching under a banner bearing the slogan “Vietnam Veterans Against the War”.

Ron Kovic, a disabled former Marine Corps sergeant and author of the book Born on the 4th of July, said: “History is on our side. We are on the side of love, feeling, caring and beauty. This is only just the beginning.”

Valerie Schloredt, 44, from Seattle but now living in South London, said that she was worried that the Administration in Washington was eroding American freedoms.

Draped in a Stars and Stripes flag, Ms Schloredt said she was concerned that prisoners at Guantanamo Bay were being denied justice. “If we don’t defend conventions like the Geneva Convention, that really is the end,” she said.

“We have to support the rights of people, even if we don’t really like them or what they are saying.”

As the march got under way in the Bloomsbury area of Central London, Malcolm Pepper, in his early 50s, from Bedford, was bundled away by police as his attempts to wave an American flag inflamed some sections of the crowd.

He said: “The police moved me on for my own safety. I support America because I’m English and because they’re doing a good job.” Britain, he suggested, “would be stuffed” without the support of America.

Gesturing towards the marchers, he added: “These people are misguided fools.”

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