Police were called to a large demonstration by Charedi men in a street in Stamford Hill on Tuesday reportedly held to prevent the removal of a young girl by social services.

According to Charedi sources in the north London area, the girl was being fostered by a Jewish family but social services sought to relocate her to a non-Jewish home.

Police, who were called at just before 9.30 am, said: “A crowd had gathered in the street to protest against a decision concerning the welfare of a child and were refusing to allow the local authority staff to leave the address.”

The crowd dispersed “without incident” shortly after 2pm and there were “no reports of any offences or injuries and no arrests”.

One Stamford Hill source said the girl was not taken away in the end. He estimated that around 300 members of the community had attended the protest.

Haringey Council, the local authority involved, said later that it was working with a representative of the Charedi community and had reached a resolution on Wednesday that enabled social care officers to discharge their duty to the child "with minimal police assistance and disruption to the child".