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Anti-gentrification protesters daubed the word “scum” on Brick Lane’s divisive cereal café and cracked an estate agent’s window during a demo in east London this evening.

The “F*** Parade” was this evening taking place in Bethnal Green Road and Brick Lane amid calls to “reclaim Shoreditch”.

Hundreds of people joined the Saturday night street party in protest against unaffordable housing. It followed similar events under the same banner that have taken place over the past months in areas such as Camden.

Pictures appeared to show a window at the Marsh and Parsons estate agent’s had been shattered. Cereal Killer – which was last year forced to defend its prices after a Channel 4 interviewer asked whether local people could afford £3.20 for a single bowl – was covered in paint with the word “scum” scrawled on a window.

The protest was policed by 10 riot vans, one witness said. Demonstrators set fire to a "hipster police" mannequin and dumped it in a bin on the Old Street roundabout.

A woman who lives above the café told the Standard: “I just heard loads of loud music, which isn’t out of the ordinary for Brick Lane, but it didn’t seem to pass.

“Then I looked out of the window to see men in pig masks with flame torches. There were about 50 people. I heard lots of smashing and then they left. Now there are helicopters and fireworks everywhere.”

A statement on the group’s website reads: “We don’t want luxury flats that no one can afford, we want genuinely affordable housing. We don’t want pop-up gin bars or brioche buns – we want community.

“Soon this city will be an unrecognisable, bland, yuppie-infested wasteland with no room for normal (and not so normal) people like us.

“London is our home and worth defending against this onslaught of dog-eat-dog economics. Working class people are being forced out of our homes but we won’t go out without a fight.”

Tonight we were attacked with paint and fire by an angry mob of 200. Riot police are on the scene. pic.twitter.com/GPXLmyMmuN — Cereal Killer Cafe (@CerealKillerUK) September 26, 2015

A Twitter account that appeared to be live-tweeting the protest shared a picture of the café with the words: “Cereal cafe. £5 for cereal when people are starving. F*** gentrification.

“F*** cutesy boutiques and coffee shops. Homes for everyone.”

Twins Alan and Gary Keery opened Cereal Killer in Brick Lane last November. Anti-poverty campaigners estimate the average annual wage in Tower Hamlets, the cafe's neighbourhood, is just £11,400 a year.

Due to an impromptu demo, Old Street Roundabout is currently blocked. Expect delays on all approaches. pic.twitter.com/qyRszSWJ68 — TfL Traffic News (@TfLTrafficNews) September 26, 2015

One protester, who asked not to be named, told the Standard: "We're out tonight to reclaim the streets against gentrification, homelessness, evictions and the social cleansing of London.

"We're out in our hundreds, and having a big f***ing party at the same time."