Minneapolis council pledges to disband police as protests mount

The Minneapolis city council has pledged to disband the police department after the controversial death of George Floyd sparked global outrage.

Nine of the 13-member Minneapolis City Council have backed a community-led safety model.

Alondra Cano, a member of the Minneapolis council, took to Twitter to announce that "a veto-proof majority of the MPLS City Council just publicly agreed that the Minneapolis Police Department is not reformable and that we're going to end the current policing system".

It is, however, unclear what the new system will look like, with council members admitting that such reforms could be a long, complex process.

Tens and thousands of people around the world took to the streets after George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, died after being pinned by the neck for nine minutes by a white officer's knee in Minneapolis.