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Black taxi drivers staged a mass protest in central London tonight forming a blockade at Bank junction over the traffic ban at the accident blackspot.

Angry drivers brought the busy junction to a standstill on Monday evening in the first of five planned protests.

The demonstration was over a ban on taxis at the junction between 7am and 7pm Monday to Friday.

Cars, lorries and vans have also been banned during those times in an effort to reduce the number of cyclist and pedestrian casualties in the area. Buses are still able to use the junction.

Taxi drivers have promised they will be at Bank junction every day this week until Friday between 4pm and 7pm.

The traffic ban came into force after pressure from bike safety campaigners followed the death 26-year-old City worker Ying Tao, who was killed after being hit by a lorry as she cycled to work in June 2015.

Transport for London says casualties reduced by 52 per cent at the junction as a result of an experimental safety scheme implemented last year.

Penny Rees, TfL's Head of Network Sponsorship, said: “City of London have worked hard to reduce road danger at Bank junction, with a significant reduction in casualties since the introduction of the scheme.

“This contributes to the Mayor’s Vision Zero target to eliminate all deaths and serious injuries from London’s transport network by 2041.”

The protest comes after five days of demonstrations at London Bridge last week against a TfL scheme which would ban them from using a bus lane in a small section of nearby Tooley Street.