Indian farmers' car rally draws thousands to Birmingham

Thousands of people have driven to Birmingham's Indian consulate to show support for farmers in India protesting about agricultural reforms.

Despite the city being under tier three rules, people from across England have been taking part a week after a similar gathering in London.

The National Sikh Police Association UK advised people not to attend.

Arjan Singh, from Manchester, said people wanted to show the Indian government the reforms were unfair.

Protests in India have seen more than 250 million workers go on strike.

"Everyone has come together as these reforms are very detrimental to farmers and only serve corporate interests which will leave the farmers with nothing," Mr Singh, 37, a company director from Bramall, said.

"I feel very proud to be here... it's happened in London, Canada and America and it's a domino effect from India and we're trying to make the government see what's happening and that something's got to change."

The Kisaan Car Rally started at Guru Har Rai Gurdwara in West Bromwich at about 10:30 GMT on Saturday with participators driving to the consulate for 13:00 GMT.

The National Sikh Police Association UK advised people not to attend because of the tier three restrictions and warned people if they did, to stay in their cars or potentially face enforcement action.

Some smoke devices were let off in Sandwell as part of the rally, West Midlands Police said as they advised motorists to avoid the the whole of West Bromwich, Birmingham city centre and the Jewellery Quarter because of severe traffic disruption.

Jas Singh, 41, a business consultant from Derby said he could see people in the slow-moving convoy en route to the city were adhering to social distancing if they got out of their vehicles.

"It's taken me one-and-half hours to get from Soho Road to the city centre because of the convoys," he said.

"There's thousands of people here, from all ages and from around the country and they're wearing masks and very little mixing is going on - everyone is very conscious of that."

When the vehicles reached Birmingham, some people did leave their cars to gather outside the embassy in the Jewellery Quarter prompting police to say they would take "appropriate action".

"Deliberately not following the regulations and measures put in place to limit the spread of the virus is unacceptable and our officers will take the appropriate action where necessary," the force tweeted.

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