Russell Brand and Vivienne Westwood joined thousands of masked anti-capitalist demonstrators who descended on Westminster for a Bonfire Night protest, bringing chaos to the capital.
Scores of riot police were on stand-by amid threats from campaign group Anonymous that the demonstration would create a blockade throughout London.
Officers were forced to draw their batons as missiles, plastic cones and road signs were launched along the Mall, while fireworks were left off in Trafalgar Square.
The masked demonstrators - some as young as 14 - also kicked and dragged over security railings while chanting 'one solution, revolution', as others daubed graffiti on riot vans.
During the march, protesters also let off fireworks and threw firecrackers at police who were guarding the Victoria Memorial, hurling abuse at them.
The crowd surged through central London, pushing over bins, shouting at bemused shoppers and commuters and hitting cars and people with yellow flexible tubes.
At one point, they surrounded a man driving a new Mercedes car and sprayed the back of it with an aerosol, pushing their tubes at him as he opened windows to remonstrate with them.
The protest, known as the Million Mask March, was one of hundreds organised at the same time in cities around the world.
Demonstrators wearing sinister Guy Fawkes masks - made famous in the film V for Vendetta - descended on Trafalgar Square, waving banners and placards, before marching towards Parliament Square at 6.30pm.
As they milled around the square, they chanted anti-establishment slogans before climbing on to the base of Nelson's Column and letting off fireworks.
They then moved onto Buckingham Palace before hundreds of protesters made their way through central London, going to Piccadilly Circus, Regent Street and Oxford Circus.
They then marched to the BBC's headquarters at Broadcasting House on nearby Portland Place and going along Oxford Street to Hyde Park and Park Lane.
As of around midnight, ten people had been arrested, including three on suspicion of assaulting police officers, one of a firework offence, three for public order crimes and one of attempted GBH.
The group said in its manifesto that it fights against mass surveillance, austerity and infringement of human rights.
Russell Brand also joined the Lo
ndon arm of the worldwide Million Mask March last year.
During that march, energy bills were burned, fireworks were shot at Buckingham Palace and there were 15 arrests, following scuffles with police.
He later wrote an article saying that riots are sparked 'when dialogue fails, when they feel unrepresented and bored by the illusion'.
Today, it seemed the group were hoping for a similar result. On its website before the march, one of the group members wrote: 'What I'd like to see is a MASSIVE Anonymous blockade of London City.
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