Police relax as G8 summit ducks any security dramas

Anti-hunger activists wear giant head masks depicting the G8 leaders (AP)

Highly-trained specialist police officers could be seen feeding ducks in Northern Ireland on Monday afternoon as potential threats to the security of the G8 summit failed to materialise.

Thousands of extra officers had been drafted in from Britain to guard world leaders gathered in County Fermanagh against attacks from either anti-capitalist agitators or dissident republicans.

But only a few demonstrators turned up and there were no clashes, in contrast to previous G8 meetings which sparked violent confrontations. Instead, officers could be seen feeding ducks on waterways around the summit hotel grounds, and exercising police dogs.

Only a few protesters were active during the day, some of them in small boats. Police kept all craft away from the hotel. But last night around 1,500 people took part in a march near the summit .