Columbus and Confederate statues torn down in US

Statues of Confederate leaders and the explorer Christopher Columbus have been torn down in the United States, as pressure grows on authorities to eliminate monoliths linked to slavery and manifest destiny.

A statue of Confederate President Jefferson Davis was fallen in Richmond, Virginia, on Wednesday night.

Elsewhere in the city, a statue of Columbus was taken down, set alight and tossed into a lake a day previously.

Anti-racism protests have actually re-ignited disputes over US historic monoliths.

Memorials to the Confederacy, a group of southern states that fought to keep black people as servants in the American Civil War of 1861-65, have been amongst those targeted by demonstrators taking to the streets after the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody.

A three-metre tall (10 feet) bronze statue of Italian explorer Columbus was likewise toppled in Saint Paul, Minnesota on Wednesday.

Statues of Columbus in Boston, Massachusetts and in Miami, Florida were likewise vandalised. The one in Boston, which stands on a plinth at the heart of town, was beheaded.

Many people in the US commemorate the memory of Columbus, who in school textbooks is credited with finding “the New World”, the Americas, in the 15 th Century.

However Native American activists have long challenged honouring Columbus, saying that his expeditions to the Americas resulted in the colonisation and genocide of their forefathers.