A handful of demonstrators were grabbed by police after they leapt over security barriers and tried to run towards the embassy building as Mr Wen arrived. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
LONDON - FIVE pro-Tibet protesters were arrested on Sunday after they tried to charge towards Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao's motorcade as he visited the Chinese embassy in London, police said.
A handful of demonstrators were grabbed by police after they leapt over security barriers and tried to run towards the embassy building as Mr Wen arrived.
A police spokesman said five men were arrested for 'breaching the peace'.
Mr Wen, on the second day of the final stop of his European tour, was greeted by around 200 noisy pro-Tibet protesters and a rival pro-China demonstration of 100 people facing each other outside the embassy.
A Tibetan protester, Tse Ring, a 33-year-old charity worker, said: 'We want China to free our people from a brutal regime. China has imprisoned and killed thousands. We call on Wen Jiabao to hold direct talks with the Dalai Lama.' The protesters waved placards reading, 'Wen Jiabao, Tibetan Blood on Your Hands.'
China accuses the Tibetan exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama of trying to seek independence from Chinese rule for his Himalayan homeland.
On the other side of the road, standing in the bitter cold under Chinese flags, a Chinese-born student who wanted to be identified only as Jin, 20, was dismissive of the pro-Tibet protest.
'I think they have been influenced by propaganda. I don't see how they can really know what is going on in Tibet,' he told AFP.
'I don't see how they can criticise Wen Jiabao, who is such a good man. He rushed to be at the earthquake scene last year and he wants to do everything to help people escape poverty,' he said, referring to the quake in Sichuan province which left 88,000 people dead or missing.
The Chinese premier later gave a speech at the Natural History Museum in London, outside which about 100 pro-Tibet protesters gathered in the snow, according to police.
Mr Wen met British opposition leader David Cameron earlier on Sunday and is scheduled to hold talks with Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Monday.
He started his European trip in Switzerland, where he attended the World Economic Forum in Davos, also visiting Berlin, Brussels and Madrid before London. -- AFP
