Two people were arrested with one charged after a pro-Palestine peace protest outside BAE Systems held on the first anniversary of the terrorist attack by Hamas on an Israeli music festival.

Demonstrators had taken up positions at the entrance to the site on the A59 Samlesbury on Monday morning, a year on from the October 7, 2023, atrocity which triggered the violence between Israel Defence Forces, Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran over the past 12 months.

Traffic was held up on the stretch of road and there were long delays along the busy route between Blackburn and Preston.

Police said of the two people arrested, one woman has now been charged.

Rabiya Ahmed, 27, Campbell Place, Blackburn has been charged with failing to comply with a Section 14 (public order) notice.

She was bailed to appear at Blackburn Magistrates’ Court on October 29.

A second woman, in her 40s and from Lancaster, was arrested for obstructing police.

Demonstrators have gathered outside BAE Systems a number of times over the past year to protest its sale of arms to Israel.

Since the October 7, 2023, attack, in which more than 1,000 people were killed, including more than 800 civilians, violence has gripped the Middle East.

Tens of thousands of people, mainly civilians, have died in Gaza amid Israel's barrage of the Palestinian enclave, which it claims are targeted attacks on Hamas, with hundreds more dead in the West Bank.