Australia - Police have rescued Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard from angry Aboriginal protesters who were demonstrating on Australia Day against European settlers' “centuries-long persecution of the Aborigines.”

Scores of police escorted Gillard and the leader of the opposition Tony Abbott from the capital Canberra's Lobby restaurant after it was surrounded by around two hundred Aboriginal protesters.

Gillard appeared distressed as she was pulled away from the encirclement of protesters but escaped unhurt.

Supporters of indigenous rights had besieged the restaurant and banged its windows while Gillard and Abbott were inside officiating at an award ceremony to commemorate Australia's national day.

According to reports, chaos followed as a bodyguard grabbed Gillard, with one of her shoes off, by the shoulders and shoved her into a car. Many protesters chased Gillard and continued to bang on the car's rooftop and the bonnet as it was driven off.

Canberra celebrates January 26 as Australia Day to mark the arrival of the First Fleet of British ships in Sydney to establish the penal colony of New South Wales in 1788 to the European colonization of the Australian continent.

The Aborigines mourn the day as an Invasion Day, saying the Europeans invaded their continent and systematically massacred hundreds of thousands of indigenous people, killed with guns, poisoned water and food, and many died from diseases, such as smallpox, measles, and influenza, introduced by the invaders.

It was estimated that about one million Australian Aborigines inhabited the country within 500 different tribes in 1788. Today, 224 years later, there are some 300,000 Aborigines left in the country.

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Source: Press TV