A young woman knelt for hours on a busy main road outside High Wycombe's biggest park in solidarity with victims of injustice.

Mudia Tahir, a sixth former at the Highcrest Academy, knelt outside The Rye along London Road with an important message for passers-by - Black Lives Matter.

Mudia's sign featured names of people of colour who have also died in the UK, including High Wycombe's Habib ‘Paps’ Ullah, who died while being restrained by Thames Valley Police officers on July 3, 2008.

The student said her choice to kneel was inspired by NFL star Colin Kaepernick, who knelt every time the US national anthem was played before a game to protest police brutality against the black community.

Describing her reasons for her protest - which gained support from passers-by who beeped their horns and shouted - Mudia said she was inspired to do something after seeing the protests in the US after George Floyd's death.

She said: "I got to work making my Black Lives Matter sign. I said 'we are not innocent' and 'say their names'.

"And I added names that I had not previously heard or read. Thousands more that had been swept under the rug, just to be devalued and forgotten. No one tells you you’ll feel emotional making a poster until you do.

"I had the idea of a protest but I had no idea where to begin. And I was impatient to get into action. So the idea came up to kneel by the Rye, next to our town’s busiest road, and hold up my sign.

"There was a worry of my actions solely being performative, but when I carried them out, awareness was the goal in mind.

"During one hour, there were cars that beeped at me to wave, give me a thumbs up, or show the black power fist, but when I saw the children in the back seats of those cars, I really hoped they had turned to their parents and asked what it meant.

"I really hope there are children across the town, and around the world, who are seeing the news or stumbling upon articles, and are asking questions."

Mudia said it was important that she cover her face during her protest, wearing sunglasses and a mask so it was clear the demonstration was not about her.

She added: "This is about the black community. The beauty of this town is that we are a melting pot of different cultures, backgrounds, religions, and races.

"Every single person has a different story to tell; a different experience to share. And we don’t treasure that enough.

"Black people are our families, our friends, our partners, our colleagues, and so much more. Black people are more than the stereotypes the media has portrayed. More than just victims. More than anything our minds can imagine.

"To my brown family and my white friends: we need to empathise and sympathise, soak in the hurt and anger, and use it to stand beside the black community in their struggle and take action when they’re not being heard.

"We need to lend our platforms and positions of power and privilege to allow the black community to stand up and have a voice, and not centre ourselves in these discussions.

"As a whole, we have been complicit for too long. We have been silent. And we failed to realise that all this did was contribute to the systems of racism that we all live under right now. Please, educate yourselves, your families, and your friends about anti-racism."

Mudia's message has been shared with the Bucks Free Press by Cllr Khalil Ahmed, who added: "I firmly believe that we need to stand united in solidarity at a time when this action highlights many thousands of other instances all around the world in which people are discriminated on the basis of colour, religion, gender and other characteristics.

"We need to to constantly challenge any form of racism or discrimination and seek social justice and equality for all."