London:
Pro-Palestinian demonstrators heckled and repeatedly disrupted a performance by Israel's Philharmonic orchestra conducted by Indian-born Zubin Mehta at London's famed Proms festival last night.
The booing and shouting by about 30 protestors in and outside the prestigious Royal Albert Hall where the concert was being conducted also forced BBC Radio to take the live broadcast off the air for sometime.
Zubin Mehta, 75, a Parsi was conducting to celebrate his 50 years with orchestra, which last played at the Proms in 2003.
The Proms, run by the BBC, is a world famous eight-week season of 100 classical concerts that has been running since 1895.
BBC said that several demonstrators in the hall shouted as Zubin Mehta stood to conduct Bruch's violin concerto and there were more shouts and booing from the audience.
Security around the Albert Hall had been tightened before the show as the Palestine Solidarity Campaign had earlier called on people to boycott the concert and also urged the BBC to cancel it.
They alleged that Israel's Philharmonic orchestra had close links with the Israeli army and had been performing shows at army outposts.
The BBC later issued a statement regretting the interruption. "We regret that as a result of sustained audience disruption within the concert hall which affected the ability to hear the music, tonight's Israel's Philharmonic orchestra Prom was taken off air."
The performance which consisted of four parts was interrupted first at 7: 45pm local time and coverage was cut off again an hour later after more protests.
Later the police said 30 people were removed by security but there was no arrest and no violence.