North Carolina protesters tear down Confederate statue and hang it by the neck from a post

Protesters in North Carolina's capital pulled down parts of a Confederate monument Friday on night and hanged one of the toppled statues from a light post.

Demonstrators used a strap to pull down two statues of Confederate soldiers that were part of a larger obelisk near the state capitol in downtown Raleigh, news outlets reported.

Police officers earlier in the evening had foiled the protesters' previous attempt to use ropes to topple the statues. But after the officers cleared the area, protesters mounted the obelisk and were able to take down the statues.

They then dragged the statues down a street and used a rope to hang one of the figures by its neck from a light post. The other statue was dragged to the Wake County courthouse, according to the News & Observer.

Earlier in the day, hundreds of demonstrators had marched through downtown Raleigh and Durham to protest against police brutality and to celebrate Juneteenth, which commemorates the emancipation of enslaved African Americans.

Numerous Confederate statues have been vandalised or torn down across the South in recent weeks following the death of George Floyd, a Black man who was killed after a white Minneapolis police officer pressed a knee into his neck for several minutes.

Confederate monuments were toppled in nearby Durham and Chapel Hill in 2017 and 2018, respectively.

It came as protesters in Washington DC toppled the only statue of a Confederate general in the nation's capital and set it on fire.

Cheering demonstrators jumped up and down as the 11-foot statue of Albert Pike, which wobbled on its high granite pedestal before falling backward, landing in a pile of dust. Protesters then set a bonfire and stood around it in a circle as the statue burned, chanting, "No justice, no peace!" and "No racist police!"

Eyewitness accounts and videos posted on social media indicated that police were on the scene but didn't intervene. President Donald Trump quickly tweeted about the toppling, calling out D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and writing: "The DC police are not doing their job as they watched a statue be ripped down and burn. These people should be immediately arrested. A disgrace to our Country!"

Jubilant protesters read out Trump's tweet over a bullhorn and cheered. After the statue fell, most protesters returned peacefully to Lafayette Park near the White House.

The Pike statue has been a source of controversy over the years. The former Confederate general was also a longtime influential leader of the Freemasons, who revere Pike and who paid for the statue. Pike's body is interred at the D.C. headquarters of the Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, which also contains a small museum in his honor.