POLICE HAVE REMOVED handcuffs attaching Jacob Blake, who was paralysed after US police shot him repeatedly in the back, to his hospital bed.

Blake, a 29 year-old African-American, was shot seven times in the back over the weekend by a white police officer in Kenosha, Wisconsin and can not move from the waist down.

Reports that Blake was tied to his hospital bed had caused a further uproar amid a groundswell of national anger over yet another shooting of a black man by police.

His lawyer Patrick Cafferty said Blake was restrained in his hospital bed and officers were watching over him because of an outstanding warrant stemming from a domestic violence-related incident in July.

Cafferty said he had arranged with a district attorney to have that warrant cancelled.

“As of five minutes ago, the cuffs have been removed from Mr Blake and the deputies have left his room,” Cafferty said at midday local time, according to the Wisconsin State Journal newspaper.

Blake’s father, Jacob Blake Sr, earlier expressed outrage after seeing his son restrained during a visit to the hospital on Wednesday.

“Why do they have that cold steel on my son’s ankle?” he said in an interview on CNN.

“He can’t get up, he couldn’t get up if he wanted to.”

“This is an insult to injury,” said the younger Blake’s uncle, Justin Blake. “He is paralysed and can’t walk and they have him cuffed to the bed. Why?”

Blake’s father said his son told him he can feel pain in his legs but is not sure if the pain is actually coming from his legs.

Civil rights march

Earlier, Wisconsin governor Tony Evers said he was baffled as to why Blake was tied to his bed.

“I would have no personal understanding why that would be necessary,” Evers told reporters Thursday.

Blake’s shooting has seen days of unrest in Kenosha. A 17-year-old from Illinois has been charged after shooting dead two protesters in the city and injuring a third.

Meanwhile, thousands of people are estimated to have gathered at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington DC where Martin Luther King Jr delivered his historic ‘I Have A Dream’ address about racial equality.

Early on, the march was shaping up to be the largest political gathering in Washington since the coronavirus pandemic began.

Organisers reminded attendees to practise social distancing and wear masks throughout the programme.

Turnout was expected be lighter than initially intended due to city-imposed pandemic restrictions that limit out-of-state visitors to the nation’s capital.

With reporting from Press Association.