TASS, June 11. Protesters in Richmond (Virginia) have torn down the monument erected to the only President of the Confederate States of America, Jefferson Davis (1808-1889), local WRIC TV said Wednesday.

According to the channel, the statue was thrown into a nearby lake. The police arrived at the site.

The Confederate States of America existed between 1861 and 1865. During the US Civil War, soldiers of the slave-owning South fought the North were slavery was outlawed. Despite losing the war and nationwide abolition of slavery, various Confederate symbols, including the flags and statues, remained in some southern states in spite of protests of those branding them as racist.

Earlier on Wednesday, the TV channel also informed that a group of demonstrators tossed a Christopher Columbus statue into the lake. Native Americans often call him a colonizer and a murderer.

Widespread unrest has engulfed many US states over the death of an African American Minneapolis man named George Floyd, who died after a police officer kneeled on his neck and choked him to death during his arrest. On May 26, all officers involved in the deadly arrest were fired. On May 29, the policeman in question, Derek Chauvin, was arrested on third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter charges. However, on June 3, Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison upped the charge against Chauvin to second-degree murder. The three other officers involved in the fatal incident were arrested as well and are now facing charges of aiding and abetting second-degree murder.

To counter the riots, local law enforcement is often supported by the National Guard.