A gathering of hundreds in Liverpool city centre to protest about lockdown was "lawful" and and "met the conditions" of coronavirus legislation, police said.
The rally, at St John's Gardens this afternoon, saw crowds gather to listen to speakers and at one point people broke into a rendition of a Bob Marley song with the chorus "Everything little thing is gonna be all right."
The gathering described as a "mental health awareness rally" was organised by a group called Save Our City.
In pictures taken of the gathering, which included children and families, there appeared to be a lack of social distancing with the vast majority present not wearing a face mask or covering.
A number of signs and banners were also seen in the crowd, including one which read 'Covid hoax' and another which read 'The fear of death is the beginning of slavery'.
The gathering was held despite the Liverpool City Region being placed in the highest "Tier Three" category of lockdown because of a worrying upsurge in coronavirus cases.
Police were seen in attendance at the gathering with a number of vehicles and officers stationed around the crowd.
Tonight Merseyside Police said the gathering was "lawful" as the organiser met conditions set out under coronavirus legislation.
Assistant Chief Constable Jon Roy added: "Merseyside Police has been clear in advising people not to gather to protest under the current restrictions and consider safer ways of making themselves heard.
"Under coronavirus legislation protests can be lawful if certain conditions are met.
"In this case the organiser satisfied those conditions.
"Throughout the protest officers engaged with the organiser to ensure that their risk assessment was complied with.
"During the protest, participants were asked to keep socially distanced by speakers at regular intervals.
"While there were some examples of people not socially distancing, officers monitoring the demonstration observed those in attendance responding to those requests and spreading out.
"As they have been doing with the public throughout the pandemic, our officers acted proportionately – they engaged with the organiser who then complied with those requests and it was therefore ultimately not necessary to take the next step of enforcement.
"Had attendees not adhered to the requests made by speakers, and the protest had become unlawful, we would not have hesitated to take enforcement action.
"Officers remained until the protest ended and the gathering dispersed in an orderly fashion.
"When our officers witness clear breaches of legislation and initial engagement does not work, we have taken strong enforcement action, and will continue to do so when it is needed."
ECHO readers widely condemned the scenes in the city centre this afternoon - coming as it did on the same day as it was announced the brother of Liverpool mayor Joe Anderson had died.
In another tragic turn of events the death of local music scene legend Hambi Haralambous, was also announced, after a battle with coronavirus.
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Liverpool1980 said: "Absolutely ridiculous this and as for that banner saying #covidhoax try telling that to the families of people who have passed away with coronavirus."
Evergreen12 said: "This is shameful. Yes mental health is of importance now more than ever but blatantly disobeying every rule no social distancing and hardly any masks in the middle of a pandemic is wrong.
"Think about the mental health of the people who have to shield and are too afraid to go into town because of crowds gathering like this.
"Think about the mental health of the staff having to nurse covid patients and there relatives not even allowed to see them potentially passing away. Selfish behaviour in my opinion."
