New York Mayor Bill de Blasio yesterday ruled out removing a statue of explorer Christopher Columbus from the circle bearing his name near Central Park, entering the fraught US debate over the fate of monuments linked to the country's colonisers and pro-slavery past.

In the wake of anti-racism protests across the United States sparked by the death in police custody of handcuffed African American George Floyd, controversial statues glorifying colonisers and Confederate leaders are in the line of fire. Protesters have torn down or defaced several statues or monuments in recent days, in Boston, Richmond and elsewhere.