Extinction Rebellion: Scores Of Police Move To Clear Climate Change Protestors In Parliament Square

"Peaceful protest has a long, rich history in Parliament Square. Sad to see this action taken."
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EXTINCTION REBELLION

Scores of police officers arrived in Westminster’s Parliament Square in an attempt to move climate change protesters causing disruption in the capital.

A procession of high-vis clad Met Police officers were pictured in the famous square and seen carrying away Extinction Rebellion activists.

Protesters were carried away in handcuffs - but more people arrived and took their place lying in the street.

An officer at the scene told the Press Association that formal conditions had now been imposed on the area, making protesters who continued to block the road liable to arrest.

On a third day of protests in London, a total of 340 people had been arrested by 5pm on Wednesday after protests in Parliament Square, Waterloo Bridge, Oxford Circus and Marble Arch this week. 

Some activists glued themselves to a train and others chained themselves to Jeremy Corbyn’s garden fence.

Scotland Yard could not confirm whether or not anyone had been charged with any criminal offences.

Campaigners said the cells in the capital were full and “operating on a one-in, one-out capacity”, while some of those being released from custody have rejoined the protests.

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Climate change protesters lay down in the road in front of the Houses of Parliament in London.
SIPA USA/PA Images

Protesters in Westminster were seen to make their bodies go limp in an effort to make them more difficult to arrest.

This resulted in them being carried away by four officers each.

More people have also joined a small group sitting beneath a banner blocking Abingdon Street.

Commenting on the Parliament Square action, Extinction Rebellion said: “The police are moving in on Westminster and seem to have shut the roads down themselves.

“Peaceful protest has a long, rich history in Parliament Square. Sad to see this action taken.”

Two men and two women from the Extinction Rebellion group used a bike lock to attach themselves to a fence and glued their hands together outside Corbyn’s house in north London.

They said they all support Corbyn but want the Labour Party to go further than declaring a “climate emergency”.

As they left, one protester, Tracee Williams, 55, said: “We just really felt we had to bring it to his front door.”

British Transport Police (BTP) arrested two men and a woman on suspicion of obstructing the railway after activists clambered aboard the carriage of a train at Canary Wharf station on Wednesday morning.

A smartly dressed man and woman glued their hands to the roof before being removed and taken away in a police van.

Activists said they plan to continue their roadblocks, which have affected more than half a million people with road closures, traffic gridlock and disruption to transport and businesses since Monday, until at least next Friday.