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24 June 2011

Video: Vancouver ’riot kiss’ was in sympathy, not passion

Footage uploaded to YouTube shows the couple being knocked to the ground by a police charge.

By Samira Shackle

 

 

The photo of a couple kissing as the Vancouver hockey riots unfolded around them last week went viral and became a global sensation. The man in the photo, Australian Scott Jones, said that he was comforting his girlfriend Alex Thomas after she was knocked to the ground by an officer’s riot shield. Predictably, there was also much speculation that the photo was faked, with some bloggers suggesting that a second image showing the couple from a different angle in fact showed the scene being set up.

Now, fresh video footage uploaded to YouTube appears to corroborate Jones’s account . The video shows the couple caught in the path of two riot police, whose shields knock them to the ground. The camera moves on and then returns to show the man comforting the woman.

Jones and Thomas have so far eschewed further media attention, despite an abundance of offers to tell the story of the famous kiss. However, they are now reported to have hired celebrity publicist Markson Sparks PR, who believes that their global exposure could be worth upto $10m.

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