A man arrested for immigration offences was released on bail after protesters formed a blockade for hours to stop a police van taking him away.

Footage from the scene in Peckham, southeast London, showed a crowd of people sitting on the ground in front of the vehicle.

Members of the public stood in officer’s way or sat on the ground, shouting ‘let him go’ as they obstructed officers.

The Metropolitan Police was called to Evan Cook Close shortly after 1.30pm this afternoon ‘to a report of protesters obstructing immigration officers’ and stayed until 5pm.

A spokesman said: ‘Officers attended and found a van was being prevented from leaving the location.

‘One man has been arrested by immigration enforcement officers for immigration offences.’

The Met confirmed the man has since been released on bail.

Eleanor Janega, 39, from southeast London, said: ‘We were alerted that there was an immigration raid in process so locals came down to block it.

‘We had been sitting here blocking the van and having ice lollies. They brought more police in and tried to break through the crowd by pushing us. We all sat down.’

Labour councillor Reginald Popoola said people had ‘encircled the van peacefully’, but claimed some people were shoved during the demonstration.

On the news the man had been released on bail, Mr Popoola said: ‘He’s being released, peaceful protest is powerful.’

A woman, who gave her name only as Nicola – an activist with the south London arm of Stand Up To Racism – said police ‘gave up’ trying to arrest people at the scene.

She said: ‘Police tried to arrest a number of activists at the front, but they were held onto by others who were also sitting down and the police gave up.

‘And finally, after a lot of protest, the police announced that they were going to release him (the arrested man) and it took, I don’t know, about half an hour for them to actually open the doors so we all stayed and called for this to happen quickly.’

Saturday’s incident comes as the Government faces criticism for its immigration policies.

A High Court ruling on yesterday paved the way for the first flight taking migrants from the UK to Rwanda to go ahead on Tuesday.

The new policy is part of Home Secretary Priti Patel’s bid to curb Channel crossings.

Campaign groups and a union had asked judges to block the deportation flight and said they were ‘disappointed’ and ‘deeply concerned’ for the welfare of those due to be sent to Rwanda, adding they would appeal against the decision on Monday.

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