LONDON -- Mike Tyson was forced to take shelter in a police station Friday after nearly a thousand fans mobbed him during a visit to one of London's heavily black neighborhoods.

The former heavyweight champion waded into crowds smiling and waving as fans chanted "Tyson! Tyson!" His visit to Brixton was likened to recent visits by Nelson Mandela and Muhammad Ali.

But Tyson began to show concern for his safety as police and his bodyguards struggled to restrain the throng.

Minutes after being escorted into the police station, Tyson appeared at a fourth-floor window and spoke to the people through a megaphone.

"They say you didn't want me here, right?" he said, greeted by more cheers.

Tyson was referring to comments earlier this week by a community leader who said the boxer was a "pariah" and was not welcome in the area because of his 1992 rape conviction.

"These councilmen can't tell me nothing I don't know about my brothers," Tyson told the crowd. "I have got to get back to training, so I would appreciate if you let me break out. Thank you very much, thank you very much. I love you Brixton."

But the crowds did not disperse. A half-hour later, Tyson was whisked out a back entrance of the police station and taken away in a police van, presumably back to his luxury hotel on Park Lane.

Tyson's promoter, Frank Warren, swept up alongside his star, savored the publicity for Tyson's Jan. 29 fight in Manchester against Julius Francis.

"People love him and this is what we are seeing," Warren said. "I don't think it is dangerous. It was just a bit of over excitement."

Tyson brought Brixton to a standstill. Traffic was stopped while people stood on top of walls, climbed trees, dangled from windows and even jumped onto the roof of a police van to get a view of the fighter.

The scene was just as chaotic an hour earlier when Tyson went to a mosque at Regent's Park. There were a few brief scuffles as he walked barefoot into the main prayer hall.

Tyson's visit delayed a memorial service for a 19-year-old Kurdish boy as members of the congregation pushed and shoved to catch a glimpse of the fighter who converted to Islam while serving a jail term for rape.

Relatives of 19-year-old Zardasht Draey, who was killed in a knife attack a month ago, said the boy would have welcomed the presence of Tyson.

"Zardasht was a great fan of Tyson. He would be very happy to have known he was here. It is not a problem as far as we are concerned," his uncle Kamal Draey said.

Earlier, Tyson said he wanted to visit Brixton to meet "his people."

"If you're an African-American or you're a black man from any part of the world and you come to London, you go to Brixton to see your people out of respect for them alone," Tyson said. "If I was an Irish American, I would go to Belfast and I would meet (Sinn Fein leader) Gerry Adams."

Tyson said his criminal record helped him identify with the underdog and the down-and-out "and people who murdered people and did some things."

"I've lived that life," he said. "I've been where these guys have been, I've lived the life they've been and I've been there. I'm just happy to go there because a black man ... we should always pay homage to areas where our people are from."

Tyson has been undisturbed by women's rights demonstrators who burst into the five-star Park Lane hotel Thursday only to be turned away by security.

Women's groups are angry that Home Secretary Jack Straw allowed a convicted rapist into the country even though people who have served long jail terms for crime are usually kept out. An anti-rape group lost a court decision seeking to reverse Straw's decision.

Tyson has been so impressed with London that he has said he'd like to live in the British capital.