Protests worldwide embrace Black Lives Matter movement

Tens of thousands of people took to the streets in cities worldwide on Saturday, demonstrating in support of U.S. protests against police brutality and racial discrimination.

After a largely peaceful protest in London, a few demonstrators near British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's residence threw bottles at police and mounted officers charged and pushed protesters back. Earlier more than a thousand protesters marched past the U.S. Embassy on the south bank of the River Thames, blocking traffic and holding placards.

In Australia, approximately 20,000 people attended anti-racial injustice protests in Sydney in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement on Saturday, New South Wales (NSW) police said in a statement. Rallies are also going ahead in Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide.

Police in the German city of Hamburg used pepper spray on protesters and said they were ready to deploy water cannons. In Berlin, demonstrators filled the central Alexanderplatz square.

In Paris, the authorities banned demonstrations planned outside the U.S. Embassy and on the lawns near the Eiffel Tower. However, several hundred protesters, some holding "Black Lives Matters" signs, gathered on Place de la Concorde, close to the embassy.

Demonstrations have flared up in Mexico City in recent days in solidarity with the nationwide protests in the United States. The Mayor of Mexico City, Claudia Sheinbaum, said she does not tolerate members of her police force committing acts of brutality on demonstrators. Sheinbaum was reacting to reports of police violence committed against a female teenage protester in front of the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City on Friday. 

(With input from Reuters)