Confederate statue toppled in Virginia

In the former capital of America's Confederacy, demonstrators have toppled a statue of General Williams Carter Wickham from its pedestal after a day of mostly peaceful demonstrations across the commonwealth.

The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that most of the demonstrators had already dispersed on Saturday when a rope was tied around the Confederate statue, which has stood since 1891 in Richmond's Monroe Park, which is surrounded by the Virginia Commonwealth University campus. In 2017, some of Wickham's descendants urged the city to remove the statue.

A Richmond police spokeswoman didn't know if there were any arrests and the extent of any damage.

Confederate monuments are a major flashpoint in Virginia. Last week, Governor Ralph Northam announced that a state-owned statue of former Confederate General Robert E Lee would be removed from its perch on the famed Monument Avenue "as soon as possible".