Angry protesters in London attack Bank of England, RBS

LONDON — Chanting G-20 protesters clashed with riot police in central London on Wednesday, overwhelming police lines, vandalizing the Bank of England and smashing windows at the Royal Bank of Scotland. An effigy of a banker was set ablaze, drawing cheers.

More than 30 people were arrested after some 4,000 anarchists, anti-capitalists, environmentalists and others clogged London’s financial district for what demonstrators branded “Financial Fool’s Day.” The protests were called ahead of Thursday’s Group of 20 summit of world leaders, who hope to take concrete steps to resolve the global financial crisis that has lashed nations and workers worldwide.

The protests in London’s financial district — known as “The City” — began as Prime Minister Gordon Brown and President Barack Obama held a news conference at Britain’s Foreign Ministry elsewhere in the capital.

A battered effigy of a banker in a bowler’s hat hung on a traffic light near the Bank of England as protesters waved signs saying: “Resistance is Fertile,” and “Make Love not Leverage.”

Bankers have been lambasted as being greedy and blamed for the recession that is making jobless ranks soar. Other banners read “Banks are evil” and “Eat the bankers,” and “0 percent interest in others.” Some bankers went to work in casual wear Wednesday fearing they could be targeted.

Some bolder financial workers leaned out office windows, taunting the demonstrators and waving 10 pound notes at them. Two men — one wearing a suit — exchanged punches before police intervened.

Groups of protesters converged on the central bank, with Tibetan, Palestinian, communist, and anarchist flags poking out from the crowd. Tensions rose as officers refused to let the protesters leave the small plaza in front of the bank.

Protesters pelted police standing guard at the Royal Exchange with paint, eggs, fruit and other projectiles, and a small group of anarchists, skinheads, and masked protesters repeatedly attacked a police cordon flanking the Bank of England.

Some in the crowd urinated against the bank and the message “Built on blood” was scrawled in chalk in front of the building. Police helicopters hovered above.

A particularly ferocious balaclava-wearing mob broke into a closed RBS bank branch and stole keyboards, using them to break windows. Other protesters spray-painted graffiti on the RBS building, writing “Class War” and “Thieves.” Mounted riot police eventually pushed them back.

RBS has been the focus of particular anger because it was bailed out by the British government after a series of disastrous deals brought it to the brink of bankruptcy. Still, its former chief executive Fred Goodwin — age 50 — managed to walk off with an annual pension of $1.2 million even as unemployment in Britain rises from some 2 million.

“Every job I apply for there’s already 150 people who have also applied,” said protester Nathan Dean, 35, who lost his information technology job three weeks ago. “I have had to sign on to the dole for the first time in my life. You end up having to pay your mortgage on your credit card and you fall into debt twice over.”

At least one police officer was hurt when a printer and other office equipment was thrown out of the RBS window. Hundreds cheered as a blue office chair was used to smash one of the blacked-out branch windows. One protester dressed as the Easter bunny managed to hop through the police cordon but was stopped before he could reach the Bank of England.

Sporadic protests rumbled on into the evening, as the rowdier elements tangled with riot police, tossing barricades and hurling bottles.

Anti-war demonstrators descended on the U.S. Embassy bearing signs that put a pacifist twist on Obama’s trademark political message. “Quit Iraq and Afghanistan: Yes We Can!” one placard read.