The Metropolitan Police have forked out £85,000 to protesters it "assaulted".

G20 protesters caught up in this months "ketteling" and aggressive police tactics have been told they could receive "hundreds of thousands of pounds" for the way they were treated.

Scotland Yard admitted arresting demonstrators "illegally" and will pay five protesters £85,000 in damages for assault and false imprisonment.

A group had been demonstrating outside the Mexican embassy in London in 2006 officers moved in.

Assault and battery

The Met has written a letter of apology to the protesters and admitted any force used to arrest them was "assault and battery".

A Met spokesman blamed the incident on a "breakdown in communication" and "individual error." no action has been taken against the officers involved.

The spokesman said:

"There was a breakdown in communication between two locally based officers leading to the unlawful arrest of five individuals.

"As the MPS accepts that the arrests in these cases were unlawful, any force used to enact this arrest is classed as assault.

"This is the reason for the acceptance of this further element of the claim."

"Hundreds of thousands of pounds"

The solicitor Tony Murphy, who reached the out of court settlement for the five Mexican Embassy protesters, told Channel 4:

"This case concerned five protesters; the G20 involved hundreds if not thousands."

If successful legal action is taken by G20 demonstrators, the force could face a bill of hundreds of thousands of pounds."

Senior officers will be grilled by Mayor Boris Johnson and the Metropolitan Police Authority today at City Hall over how they handled the G20 protests.