Black Lives Matter statue removed from UK city

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A sculpture of a Black Lives Matter protester in the UK's Bristol city was removed on Thursday from the plinth where a statue of slave trader Edward Colston once stood. The sculpture of Jen Reid was erected on Wednesday but removed by Bristol City Council just over 24 hours later, reports the BBC.

Reid had been photographed standing on the empty plinth after the Colston statue was pulled down during protests.

Mayor Marvin Rees said it was up to the people of Bristol to decide what would replace Colston's statue.

The black resin statue of Reid, called "A Surge of Power", was created by artist Marc Quinn and designed to be a temporary installation to continue the conversation about racism.

Quinn said he was inspired to create it after seeing an image of her standing on the plinth with her fist raised during the Black Lives Matter protest on June 7.

Last month, the protesters used ropes to pull the Colston statue, which had been at the city centre site since 1895, from its plinth, the BBC reported.

It was then dragged to the harbourside, where it was thrown into the water at Pero's Bridge - named in honour of enslaved man Pero Jones who lived and died in Bristol.

The council later retrieved the statue, and said it would be displayed in a museum along with placards from the protest.