Protesters pull down 105-year-old Confederate soldier statue and ‘throw dirt on it’ in North Carolina

A university is investigating after protesters in North Carolina pulled down a Confederate soldier statue in a series of demonstrations over the controversial monuments.

About 300 demonstrators gathered at the base of Silent Sam, a memorial to the Confederate soldiers killed in the Civil War, to hold a protest and march.

Two hours into the demonstration, at the University of North Carolina, in Chapel Hill, a statue which had stood since about 1913 was pulled to the ground.

Local news reported that protesters pulled it down with rope and threw dirt over it. According to witnesses, the statue was face down in the mud and covered in dirt.

In a statement posted on Twitter, the university said: “Tonight’s actions were dangerous and we are very fortunate that no one was injured.

“We are investigating the vandalism and assessing the full extent of the damage.”

The efforts by civil rights groups and others to do away with Confederate monuments such as Silent Sam gained momentum three years ago after avowed white supremacist Dylann Roof murdered nine African-Americans at a church in Charleston, South Carolina.

Since then, more than 110 symbols of the Confederacy have been removed across the nation with more than 1,700 still standing, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Many Americans see such statues as symbols of racism and glorifications of the southern states’ defense of slavery in the Civil War, but others view them as important symbols of American history.

Additional reporting by Reuters