Thousands of retired soldiers descended on Parliament on motorbikes to protest at the decision to charge Soldier F over Bloody Sunday.

Around 8,000 riders snaked through central London in an organised go-slow protest. Park Lane, one of the busiest roads in the capital, was closed to allow the bikers to form up.

Traffic was brought to a halt around Parliament Square and on Westminster and Vauxhall Bridges as the protesters, engines revving constantly, slowly made their way through the city.

Soldier F, a former paratrooper in his 70s, is the only soldier being prosecuted over Bloody Sunday. He has been charged with two murders and four attempted murders during the events which took place on January 30, 1972.

The show of support, dubbed Rolling Thunder, was arranged mostly on Facebook. Riders started to arrive from 10 o’clock in the morning.