A group has disputed claims that it was removed from a Remembrance Sunday service in Birmingham, insisting it was not stopped from laying a wreath at the city’s Cenotaph.

The row centres on a group dressed in all-black clothing, one of whom was wearing a jacket branded with the name “West Midlands Resistance”, who tried to lay a wreath at the Cenotaph on Colmore Row in Birmingham city centre on Sunday. The group approached the memorial after barriers were removed to allow members of the public to lay wreaths.

Birmingham Now reported that the group was not allowed to lay wreaths at the memorial, and that footage showed security escorting the group out of the area as they tried to approach it. One man in the group was seen wearing a black cap embroidered with the words “Not our city”, while another was holding a red flag bearing a white dragon.

The outlet said it understood the incident had not been reported to West Midlands Police, and that Birmingham City Council and West Midlands Resistance had been approached for comment.

Later on Sunday, the group hit back at the account. A spokesperson for West Midlands Resistance said they had been part of the group at the Birmingham Cenotaph on Remembrance Sunday, adding: “We were not asked to leave, not escorted away, and not prevented from laying a wreath.”

The spokesperson added: “No security approached us. A security member asked if we knew where we were going – that is all. We chose to take our wreath to the Hall of Memory with the other members of the public and laid it there. The original report is incorrect.”

According to the group, its members arrived at the Cenotaph after the barriers had been opened to the public and attempted to lay a wreath before walking with other attendees to the Hall of Memory, where they laid it instead. They said they were not directed to leave by security or officials at any point.

However, the follow-up report noted that video footage from the event appears to include someone asking security to “walk them down”, and shows a request for security to accompany the group to ensure they left the area. Despite the footage, the group maintains it was not escorted away or prevented from laying a wreath, and says it was not told to leave the site by anyone present.

The city’s Remembrance Sunday service on Colmore Row, opposite St Philip’s Cathedral, is Birmingham’s main annual act of remembrance, with a parade, a two-minute silence at 11am and wreath laying by representatives of the armed forces, veterans’ organisations, faith groups and community organisations, followed by an invitation for the public to lay their own wreaths.

The conflicting accounts leave the key question unresolved: whether the group was turned away by security, as the original report and the footage suggest, or simply chose to lay its wreath elsewhere, as the group itself insists. Neither West Midlands Police nor Birmingham City Council has publicly confirmed what happened.