London, Jun 11 (IANS): A slave trader's statue in the UK's city of Bristol, which was torn down and was thrown into a harbour by anti-racism protesters, was retrieved from the water on Thursday, it was reported on Thursday.

Black Lives Matter demonstrators tore down the statue of Edward Colston during a protest in Bristol on June 7, reports the BBC.

But Bristol City Council said it needed to be removed from the water because the city had a "working harbour".

The statue will be taken to a secure location to be hosed down before becoming a museum exhibit.

It was fished out at about 5 a.m. because the Council "didn't want anybody to get hurt if there was a crowd there or anyone looking".

"We've had a diver down there who attached the ropes to crane it out of the water and take it away," Ray Barnett, head of collections and archives at Bristol City Council, said.

"The ropes that were tied around him, the spray paint added to him, is still there so we'll keep him like that."

Barnett said the statue would be hosed down to remove the mud and ensure "we preserve him as he was tipped into the dock, while the decision is made how to move on for there".

Since the statue of Colston was toppled, calls have been made to remove others around the UK.

The statue of noted slaveholder Robert Milligan was removed from its place outside the Museum of London Docklands on Tuesday, said the BBC report.

The University of Liverpool has agreed to rename a building named after former Prime Minister William Gladstone due to his links to the slave trade.

Campaigners also want the statue of imperialist Cecil Rhodes at Oriel College at Oxford taken down, saying the university had "failed to address its institutional racism".