Man appears to throw eggs at U.K.'s King Charles III, but misses
London — A man was detained on Wednesday in the northern English city of York after he appeared to throw eggs at King Charles III and the queen consort, Camilla. The man, who had joined crowds gathered to greet the royal couple on their visit to the city, was restrained by police and heard yelling, "This country was built on the blood of slaves," according to local media reports.
The eggs missed the royal couple, and they were then ushered away.
A man's been detained by police after appearing to throw eggs at the King and Queen Consort at Micklegate Bar in York.
— BBC Radio York (@BBCYork) November 9, 2022
👇Listen live for full coverage of the royal visit:https://t.co/R4WF5t316a pic.twitter.com/TBpeQ1Ys5z
Other members of the crowd booed the man and shouted: "Shame on you" and "God save the king."
The king and his wife were visiting York to unveil a statue of the late Queen Elizabeth II.
Major incident here in York as a lone protestor tries to throw an egg at the king screaming that the country was built on the blood of slavery. He is bundled to the ground. People screaming ‘shame on you’ at him and ‘god save the king’ pic.twitter.com/tRoLjFWuJ4
— Rebecca English (@RE_DailyMail) November 9, 2022
There have been a number of demonstrations against the U.K.'s historic connections to slavery and its colonial past in recent years.
On a visit to Jamaica in March, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, who are now the Prince and Princess of Wales, William and Catherine, were met with calls for reparations and accusations that they had benefited from the "blood, tears, and sweat" of slaves.
"Kate and William are beneficiaries, so they are, in fact, complicit because they are positioned to benefit specifically from our ancestors, and we're not benefiting from our ancestors," Jamaican human rights activist Opal Adisa told The Guardian newspaper.
Demonstrations at universities including Oxford, and around U.K. cities have called for the changing of street names and the removal of statues associated with racism, colonialism or slavery, and in June 2020, Black Lives Matter protesters in the English city of Bristol pulled down a statue of 18th century slave trader Edward Colston and threw it into the harbor.