A BBC building has been forced into lockdown after dozens of pro-Palestine protesters stormed into the premises.

Some 20 activists, brandishing Palestinian flags and chanting "Free Palestine", gained access to one of the broadcaster's buildings in Belfast - Studio A at Blackstaff House on Great Victoria Street.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) was called - and later removed the protesters.

One BBC staff member who witnessed the incident said the protesters had initially approached security staff posing as tourists.

They asked to visit the building, and were refused entry - but then, as a staff member was leaving, they rushed through a pedestrian gate.

BBC News reported that the crowd gained entry to a studio through a fire door.

It comes just a few weeks after a similar protest erupted outside Broadcasting House, the BBC's London headquarters.

Back then, pro-Palestine vandals smashed office windows in a demonstration against the broadcaster's "complicity" in the "genocide of Palestinians" through its alleged "entrenched pro-Israel bias".

Organisers Palestine Action claimed that "for years, the BBC has consistently minimised Israel's violence against Palestinians while amplifying the narratives of the oppressors, perpetuating a deadly cycle of misinformation and false equivalency".