Protesters, many of them waving Palestinian flags and signs saying “Free Palestine,” gathered close to Oxford Circus from where they planned to head to Downing Street, the official residence and office of British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.

Chants were aimed at the governments of Britain and the United States for supporting Israel.

Belal Stitan, a 22 year-old student, said he was fearful for his relatives in Gaza.

“No one in Gaza is OK. My family are all in Gaza and none of them are OK,” he said, adding he wanted to get back to being able to speak to his cousins about normal things such as soccer and how they were getting on in school.

“This situation is a big, big problem for humanity and for me to have to say to the world, remember that we are human beings …, I can’t believe that we are here.”

Police issued warnings before the “March for Palestine” that anyone with a flag expressing support for Hamas or other groups proscribed as terrorist by Britain would be arrested.

Earlier on Saturday, the headquarters of the BBC broadcaster, which is located close the start of the march, was daubed in red paint. It was not immediately clear who had defaced the entrance to the building.

Pro-Palestinian protests were planned in other cities around the world on Saturday.

World ranking: 5

Captain: Jos Buttler

Coach: Matthew Mott

Top-ranked batsman: Dawid Malan (14)

Top-ranked bowler: Chris Woakes (12)

Squad: Jos Buttler (captain), Moeen Ali, Gus Atkinson, Jonny Bairstow, Harry Brook, Sam Curran, Liam Livingstone, Dawid Malan, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Ben Stokes, Reece Topley, David Willey, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood

Best result: Winners (2019)

2019 result: Beat New Zealand in the final

GROUP FIXTURES

Oct. 5: v New Zealand, Ahmedabad

Oct. 10: v Bangladesh, Dharamsala

Oct. 15: v Afghanistan, Delhi

Oct. 21: v South Africa, Mumbai

Oct. 26: v Sri Lanka, Bengaluru

Oct. 29: v India, Lucknow

Nov. 4: v Australia, Ahmedabad

Nov. 8: v Netherlands, Pune

Nov. 11: v Pakistan, Kolkata

The rain began shortly after India skipper Rohit Sharma won the toss and opted to bat, and it continued to prevent play at the Barsapara Cricket Stadium in northeastern India.

With the cutoff time for play set at 7.30 p.m. (1400 GMT) local time, match officials waited until shortly before 6 p.m before pulling the plug on the contest.

England may well not mind, however, after spending nearly 38 hours travelling from London to Guwahati with lengthy layovers in between.

They will get a chance to fine-tune their skills with a game against Bangladesh on Monday ahead of their tournament opener on Thursday, where Jos Buttler’s side will meet 2019 runners-up New Zealand in Ahmedabad.

India play the Netherlands on Tuesday before heading into the showpiece event, where they are targeting their third title.

Meanwhile, five-times champions Australia were also left frustrated as rain delayed the start of their contest with the Netherlands.

It was the second warm-up encounter in the south Indian city to be affected, after South Africa’s match against Afghanistan was abandoned a day earlier. 

England won ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 in the final match held at Lord’s stadium in London on Sunday, which was held between England and New Zealand.

“We had Allah with us as well. I spoke to Adil (Rashid), he said Allah was definitely with us. I said we had the rub of the green (smiling),” Morgan said during the presentation.

In the same breath, Morgan praised New Zealand and reckoned that the Kiwis had a decent run as they outclassed the “hot favorites” India in the first semifinal of the tournament.

“New Zealand, throughout the group stages, were absolutely outstanding, very consistent and in the semifinal were very ruthless in playing against India, India are an extremely strong team,” he added.

“They’ve been actually through a better tournament than we have. The fact a trophy is sitting here is, you know, like I mentioned, we got the rub of the green today,” Morgan said.

Morgan’s comments exhibit England’s openness towards embracing variety of cultures and valuing them for their uniqueness.