Oxford: An Oxford University building was locked down on Thursday due to protests by a pro-Palestinian protest group. The Oxford Action for Palestine (OA4P) group had organised a sit-in at the university offices on Wellington Square. The occupation of the building by the group led to its closure, with hundreds of demonstrators not being let in by the police.

“Today, Oxford students staged a peaceful sit-in to demand that the university meet with us after two weeks of non-response. Instead of engaging in dialogue with her students, the vice chancellor chose to evacuate the building, place it on lockdown, and call the police to make arrests,” a spokesperson for the OX4P organization said, reported BBC.

A large number of police personnel were present at the scene, the report said. Hundreds of people had to be stopped from entering the building by the personnel. Some protestors were also present inside the building and had put a Palestinian flag outside the window.

Similar to the protests seen in the US, the demonstrators in Oxford demanded that the university cut all of its ties with Israel due to its war in Gaza.

“We demand the administration meet with us to negotiate immediately,” the spokesperson said.

Several universities in the US witnessed the emergence of similar protests on their college campuses in recent weeks. Some protestors at these protests refused to remove encampments and the college administrators had to rely on law enforcement to clear the same by force. Many of the demonstrations were sparked by the incident at Columbia University where police cleared and arrested protestors.