Protester severely injured when Confederate monument falls on his head

A protester was seriously injured in Virginia this week when a Confederate statue he helped tear down toppled on top of him, according to reports.

The man, believed to be in his 30s, was part of a group of demonstrators Wednesday night trying to take down the Confederate monument in Portsmouth, WAVY reported.

Protesters were seen hitting the 35-foot-tall granite obelisk with a sledgehammer and using ropes to pull it off its pedestal before it fell directly on him, knocking him unconscious, the report said.

A local organizer, who witnessed the scene, said the man was bleeding and his skull was exposed from the injury, WAVY reported.

Demonstrators stopped to offer prayers for the man, as cops told them they needed to leave, the Virginia Pilot reported.

The man was taken to the hospital, where his condition is unknown, according to the reports.

Protesters gathered at the Confederate monument Wednesday after city lawmakers decided to delay a decision over moving the structure, according to the outlets.

The monument sits at a site where slaves were punished on a whipping post, the newspaper reported.

Cities across the country have called for the removal of Confederate monuments amid Black Lives Matter protests in the wake of the death of George Floyd, a black man in Minneapolis who died after a white cop pressed his knee into his neck for nearly nine minutes.