Man Dives Off London Tower Bridge in Olympic Protest

A man jumped off London’s Tower Bridge while protesting the government’s mandate that taxi drivers cannot use the Olympics Games Lanes, reserved for officials and athletes.

The man plunged headfirst in the Thames while a group of taxi cab drivers moved slowly across the bridge, honking their horns in unison, reported the BBC.

It is unclear if the man was a taxi driver. He was pulled out of the river by police and arrested.

“Officers from the marine policing unit rescued the man. He has been arrested for a public order offense,” a spokesperson with the Metropolitan Police told the broadcaster.

A Twitter user posted a photo showing a diving man as he entered the water, which was confirmed by the London-based United Cabbies Group. Later, the group said via Twitter that it “does not condone or recommend jumping in the Thames” and remarked that the man “is ok but has been arrested.”

A Port of London Authority spokesperson told Reuters that the dive “was an absolutely crazy thing to do. He could easily have killed himself.”

Leon Daniels, managing director of Surface Transport for London Transport, told the BBC that the protesters “do not represent the views of the vast majority of London’s taxi drivers.”

“It is a real shame that people who claim to represent some of the honest and most hardworking people in London, the taxi trade, have acted in this way,” he added.

Read more at The Epoch Times