LONDON - Five people were arrested and at least 16 injured in clashes outside Britain's parliament as police tried to disperse 2,500 Tamils protesting against the Sri Lankan army.

Just hours after Sri Lanka declared total victory in their decades-long civil war against ethnic Tamil Tiger rebels on Monday, the protesters massed outside parliament for what had been a peaceful gathering.

But clashes broke out when police tried to push the demonstrators along in order to re-open the street.

Three police and five protesters were hospitalised, and two police officers and six protesters were treated on the scene for light injuries, hospital workers said.

Five people were arrested for various offences, Scotland Yard said, estimating that a dozen officers were injured.

Many of Monday's demonstrators wore head bandages soaked in fake blood as a symbol of solidarity with the Tamils, while several protesters were greeted with cheers as they burned a Sri Lankan flag.

Six Tamils, including two women, on their seventh day of a hunger strike to protest against the government's military offensive, sat huddled under blankets in a tent.

One of the women required treatment from an ambulance crew, an AFP reporter said, but her life did not appear to be in immediate danger.