British police arrest 31 Tamil supporters

LONDON (Reuters) - Police arrested 31 people on Monday after supporters of Sri Lanka's Tamil community blocked roads around the British parliament in the latest of a series of protests over violence on the island.

Tamils and their supporters have been demonstrating on the square outside parliament in Westminster for several weeks, with their numbers swelling into the thousands on several occasions.

"There have been 31 arrests for highway obstruction," a spokeswoman for London police said.

A group of around 300 protesters had blocked traffic trying to cross the River Thames via Westminster Bridge and another 100 had blocked the road close to Westminster Abbey, she added.

The United Nations on Monday said attacks in Sri Lanka that killed hundreds were the bloodbath it had long feared, while the Tamil Tigers and government traded blame ahead of U.N. Security Council talks about the war.

In the latest and largest reported assault on civilians trapped in the war zone, hundreds of people were reported killed on Sunday and Monday in artillery barrages that struck the less than 5 sq km (2 sq mile) strip of territory the separatist rebels control.