Police arrest 10 at London Tamil demonstration

(Getty)

Police have arrested 10 people after Tamil protests outside the Houses of Parliament turned violent.

The arrests were made in the early hours when demonstrators spilt out from a main square in front of parliament and into surrounding streets.

Hundreds of Tamils have been demonstrating for weeks in front of parliament, calling on Britain to do more to stop the war in Sri Lanka, where government forces yesterday declared victory over Tamil militants after a 25-year civil war.

Police said the 10 arrests were for public order offences and said three officers were treated in hospital after breaking up the demonstration. There was no information on whether any of the protesters was injured.

Protesters were back in the square this morning, but in far smaller numbers, police said.

Britain has a large Tamil population, estimated at around 300,000. Many expressed disbelief yesterday that the civil war waged by the Tamil Tiger movement since the early 1980s had come to an end, and said it would resume.