A group of friends have been applauded for their efforts to remove graffiti from Winston Churchills statue.

The statue of Sir Winston Churchill, in Parliament Square, was sprayed with graffiti during a Black Lives Matter protest, last week.

It comes after petitions were launched to remove statues of controversial people around the UK.

The teenagers say they were driving past Parliament Square on Monday, June 8, when they saw the graffiti which read 'was a racist'.

Aged between 18 to 20, from Carshalton, Battersea, Norbury and Croydon; Darton Bell, Anthony Church, Sophie Bennett and Ben Brooklyn, travelled back home and returned with cleaning products at 2 am. 

Wandsworth Times:

The teenagers were approached by Council employees and the police who questioned their intentions and checked their cleaning materials.

Whilst cleaning the statue, the friends had some interaction with BLM demonstrators, however, they say it was only verbal and police were in attendance.

The teenagers were 'amazed' by the public's generosity after being approached with several offers of drinks and snacks throughout the night.

Wandsworth Times:

They were especially pleased with a tub of M&S Millionaires Mini Bites- which was handed to them by a member of the police.

Photos of the four friends have now been shared a staggering 28,000 times and liked 22,000 times.

The teens have since been branded 'heroes' by thousands who have seen the post.

Darton Bell said: "I wanted to help clean the statue because I felt like even though we have people on the streets already to clean up the mess.

"It wouldn’t hurt to show some of that British spirit we were all brought up with - the lets all pitch in to do our bit.

"It wasn’t political and I don’t wish for it to be construed that way I just wanted to help in any way that I could."