London's police force must explain its actions against people gathered at a vigil to mark the killing of a 33-year-old woman, home office minister Victoria Atkins said on Sunday, after an outcry over images of mourners being dragged away by officers.

Reuters witnesses saw police drag several women away from a gathering on Clapham Common, near to where Sarah Everard disappeared as she walked home on the evening of March 3.

“Last night people were very, very upset, there was a great deal of emotion, completely understandably, and the police, being as they are operationally independent, will be having to explain that to the home secretary,” Atkins, told Sky News.

Everard's disappearance, for which a police officer has been charged with murder, has led to a wave of accounts from women about the dangers of walking the streets alone at night, and dismay at the failure of police and wider society to tackle this.