Hundreds protest on bikes after lawyer Shatha Ali becomes eighth cyclist to die at Holborn junction

Hundreds of cyclists poured into the streets of central London tonight to demand safer roads, after a 39-year-old woman became the eighth to die at on or near a notorious junction.

Cyclist Shatha Ali died at the scene following a collision with an lorry at the gyratory outside Holborn Station on Tuesday morning.

The lawyer died at the scene in High Holborn on Tuesday morning.

At least 200 cyclists crowded into the area on Friday night to call for urgent safety improvements, in a demonstration led by the London Cycling Campaign (LCC).

Cyclists carried banners branding the junction dangerous and bearing slogans urging "stop cycling deaths".

Protesters laid flowers at the vigil for Ms Ali and the other seven cyclists killed at the area's junctions.

• Watch as hundreds of cyclists take to the streets of London in a protest calling for safety on the capital's roads.

In August, doctor Marta Krawiec was killed cycling just one junction up from where Ms Ali was killed, where Southampton Row meets Theobalds Road.

The LCC's Clare Rogers told ITV News London: "We are just absolutely devastated and we are furious that this is the eighth person to have been killed - and another woman - since 2008.

Traffic and route works are underway at the spot where Dr Krawiec was killed, but the campaigners felt improvements were "too little, too late" after years of protests demanding safer roads.

Ms Rogers said: "This has been going on for such a long time and only now it feels like things are starting to happen."

A change had been made to the arm of the junction where Dr Krawiec was killed following her death - but campaigners said calls for more improvements had not been met.

Ms Rogers asked: "Why did someone have to die for that to happen?"

"Why was it so little? Why can't you take those temporary materials that were put in so quickly, so cheaply, and do it for all the junctions that we know people are dying at.

"Do it now, before the next person is killed."

Camden Council said it was trying to re-secure more than £9million in funding from Transport for London to carry out works on the junctions, and acknowledged more needed to be done to prevent additional deaths.

Earlier this week the Met Police appealed for anyone who witnessed or had dashcam footage of the 10.08am collision to contact them.

The HGV driver stopped at the scene, at the junction of High Holborn and Procter Street.

There had been no arrests, the force added on Wednesday.

• The Met is asking anyone who witnessed the collision to tweet @MetCC to call 020 8246 9820 or 101 quoting CAD 1888 /01Mar.