Photo of a coloured man carrying an injured white protester has gone viral

Reuters photographer Dylan Martinez heard the words ring out during chaotic scenes in London on Saturday, when mostly peaceful anti-racist demonstrations turned into violent scuffles after far-right counter-protesters arrived on the scene.

A protester carries an injured counter-protester to safety, near the Waterloo station during a Black Lives Matter protest. Reuters 

Then he saw the man who had uttered them — a black protester emerging from the melee carrying an injured white man in a 'fireman's lift' over his shoulder. The picture he took has gone viral on social media and featured in news bulletins, capturing a moment of high drama that jars with the broader narrative — of anti-racist and far-right protesters fighting each other.

"I saw a skirmish and someone falling to the ground," Martinez recalled of the moment near Waterloo Bridge, in central London, as he covered Black Lives Matter anti-racism protests that have flared up in the city.

Martinez recalled that, after hearing someone say "That's not what we do!," he suddenly saw a white man being carried on a black person's shoulders through the crowd.

Reuters