HUNDREDS of thousands of people filled the streets of central London today for a march against government cuts.

Early estimates of 450,000 people were later revised down to 250,000 at the demonstration, which started in Embankment and snaked through Parliament Square and Trafalgar Square to Hyde Park.

Break out groups split off from an otherwise peaceful protest and occupied several shops in Oxford Circus, leaving paint marking the windows and even the faces of some police officers.

There have been 157 arrests for a variety of offences ranging from criminal damage and trespass to violent disorder, although for most on the march the violence will have been a distant affair.

Simon Woolley, of Operation Black Vote, said: "This is a historic day. This is a day when half a million people here in Hyde Park, millions of people around the country, all came together, shoulder to shoulder, hand to hand, to say 'no'".

Were you on the protest? Email your photos and stories to jroyston@london.newsquest.co.uk.