Protesters pelt Blair with rotten fruit
British Prime Minister Tony Blair has been pelted with rotten fruit by demonstrators protesting against Britain's policy towards Iraq.
The Prime Minister was hit on the back by a tomato as he arrived to open a new college campus in Bristol.
Other fruit, including small oranges were thrown at him by the small group of demonstrators, but no others struck him.
Some of the 20 or so protesters who tried to surge towards him were held back by police, quickly reinforced by officers on horseback.
Mr Blair took no notice of the incident as he went into the City of Bristol College, but another woman protester inside the campus yelled at him from only a few feet away: "How many Iraqi children have you killed?"
The demonstrators, holding banners with slogans such as "Cut the war tax" and "People are more important than oil", were protesting about United Nations sanctions against Saddam Hussein's regime following the Gulf war.
Mr Blair, with the tomato brushed off the back shoulder of his dark suit, went on to meet some of the college students inside the building before he was due to perform a brief formal opening ceremony.
The incident came as campaigners against Iraqi sanctions announced a demonstration in Westminster on January 16.
Reclaim the Streets and Earth First - who have taken part in the anti-capitalist demonstrations that flared into violence to London's streets - will be involved, organisers said.
The radical groups will join Iraqi exiles and Quakers.
