If they don’t want to commit to h “hundreds” BBC could have gone with “scores” or even the venerable NoCal “hella”

16 and a half dozens.

"At least twelve"

I don't know the details of this specific protest but I will say, media is notorious for underplaying participation in these things. We've hosted protests of 500+ people that got described in the news as dozens, or 5000+ that gets described as hundreds.