Live updates as pro-Palestine protest brings traffic in Cardiff to standstill

A pro-Palestine protest has brought rush-hour traffic in Cardiff city centre to a standstill. Footage posted to social media on Monday evening shows demonstrators sitting on Park Place, Boulevard de Nantes and Stuttgarter Strasse, in opposition to the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza which has killed more than 36,000 Palestinian civilians.

South Wales Police has advised motorists to avoid the area. A spokesperson for South Wales Police said in a post on social media: "We’re aware of an protest currently taking place in the vicinity of Boulevard de Nantes, Park Place and Dumfries Place, Cardiff city centre. Road traffic should avoid the area. More details will follow as soon as available."

Meanwhile campaign group Cardiff Stop the War said the protest was part of a weekly blockade for Rafah, the southernmost city in Gaza from which more than one million sheltering Palestinians have been forced to flee due to Israeli bombardment.

The group said protesters were dressed in black "to mourn the Gaza dead" and called the war a "genocide". Stagecoach South Wales said some of its services had been suspended due to the protest, with its 132 service to Porth experiencing "significant delays" of over an hour.

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