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A senior police officer has declared "enough is enough" after “exhausted” officers arrested hundreds of people at a Palestine Action protest in London, days after the Manchester synagogue attack.

Met Police said at least 442 people were arrested for supporting the proscribed group, which was classed by the UK government as a terror organisation earlier this year.

The bulk of the arrests were made at Trafalgar Square, where around 1,000 protesters sat silently, some holding signs backing Palestine Action, despite calls by Sir Keir Starmer and police chiefs to stay away following the terror attack in Manchester.

Amnesty International, meanwhile, said it should not be the job of the police to arrest people “peacefully sitting down”, and that the arrests amounted to a breach of the UK’s human rights obligations.

The Met said many of those arrested had to be carried out of the square after refusing to walk, with each person taking up to five officers to move away safely. Some were pictured holding their hands in the air defiantly.

open image in gallery Police officers detain a protester during a mass demonstration organised by Defend our Juries, against the British government's ban on Palestine Action ( REUTERS )

Paula Dodds, chair of the Metropolita