Mourners waiting to see Mandela's body break through police lines
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/13/mourners-mandela-body-break-police-lines Version 0 of 1. Several hundred mourners eager to pay their last respects to Nelson Mandela broke through police barriers in Pretoria and stormed up towards the Union Buildings shortly before the former South African president's body was moved away on Friday. The crowd stormed up the hill towards Mandela's casket and police chased people for several hundred metres to stop them. People were joyous as they raced towards the buildings, no violence erupted and police peacefully brought them back in line, a reporter on the scene said. The government said earlier that about 100,000 mourners had turned out on Friday, the third and final day of the lying in state, but half of them had had to be turned away before the casket was returned to 1 Military Hospital. Our editors' picks for the day's top news and commentary delivered to your inbox each morning. |