Nov. 6 -- LONDON -- Six people were arrested and released Tuesday following an outcry surrounding the burning of a model of London's Grenfell Tower, the apartment block where 72 people died in a devastating fire last year, according to London police.
London's Metropolitan Police said the six men, aged 19 to 55 years old, were arrested "on suspicion of a public order offence" as part of an investigation of a video showing the model burning.
"The men, aged 19, 46, 49, 49, 55 and 19 were all arrested undersection 4a of The Public Order Act after attending a south London police station," the statement added.
They were released under investigation, according to the statement.
Five of the members of the group handed themselves in to a police station in south London on Monday night, the force said, adding that they remained in custody on Tuesday. The sixth person was detained Tuesday.
Prime Minister Theresa May and other politicians criticized the burning, while the Justice4Grenfell group said it was "shocked and disgusted at the inhumanity and callousness of those involved in this video."
"To disrespect those who lost their lives at Grenfell Tower, as well as their families and loved ones, is utterly unacceptable," May said on Twitter.
"This is disgusting, shameful, behaviour," Home Secretary Sajid Javid added. "These people are a disgrace."
Opposition Labour lawmaker Emma Dent Coad, whose constituency includes Grenfell Tower in west London, said she wondered "what has gone through the minds of those responsible for this vile and shocking act."
"We all hope this will be defined as a hate crime,and those responsible charged and subject to the criminal justice system," Dent Coad said in a statement.
The video shows the cardboard model burning on a bonfire, apparently in a private garden, as several adults watch.
The model included depictions of people, mostly cut out of brown paper, holding their arms in the air at upper windows.
"Where's the ninja?" one man is heard asking, using a racist term to refer to a cutout of a Muslim woman wearing a niqab.
"The little ninja's getting it at the minute," said a later comment as the model burned.
"Stay in your flat, we'll come in and get you," another man said, apparently mocking firefighters.
One dissenter is heard suggesting that the group's action was in "really bad taste."
Moyra Samuels of Justice4Grenfell told the BBC the video appeared to reflect "a worrying rise of racism in this country at the moment."
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