HUNDREDS of people gathered in Carlisle city centre to support the Black Lives Matter campaign - and to remember 46-year-old George Floyd, the unarmed black man killed by a white Minneapolis police officer as his colleagues stood by watching.

The killing sparked anger across the globe.

Despite efforts by the US President Donald Trump to shut down the protests - by "dominating" the streets with an at times heavy-handed police presence - huge crowds have gathered, many highlighting their disgust by chanting the poignant final words of Mr Floyd : "I can't breathe."

In Carlisle today, as protestors gathered in cities across the country, more than 200 people came together to condemn racism.

The event was scheduled to start with a recording of the speech given by the US's best known black civil rights activists, Dr Martin Luther King Jnr, who was assassinated in 1968. As the crowd gathered in front of the city's Old Town Hall the organisers planned to play Dr King’s 1964 Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech when he was honoured with the prize in Oslo, Norway. The crowd in Carlisle was urged to socially distance, and most appeared to be taking that advice.