Six people were taken into custody after activists for climate change climbed onto an oil tanker in central London.
Extinction Rebellion, an environmental activist group, said that three Bayswater Road residents had climbed onto the Shell tanker and held up an End fossil filth banner. Other demonstrators gathered around it. Olympic gold medal winning canoeist Etienne Schott and fellow British Olympian Laura Baldwin took part in the protest. Stott said that he is trying to disrupt the toxic fossil-fuel industry that is destroying all we hold dear.
Images taken at the scene show Extinction Rebellion campaigners holding Extinction Rebellion banners. Metropolitan police reported that six people had been charged with vehicle interference. The road was reopened at noon. This incident was the latest in a series of coordinated protests organized by demonstrators calling to halt all investment in fossilfuels in the UK.
On Thursday, four activists stuck themselves to an Eddie Stobart fuel tanker at Chiswick roundabout. This roundabout feeds traffic from west London onto and off the M4. They held flags to protest Britain’s use fossil fuels and hung them from the sideline of the lorry.
On Friday, hundreds of protestors blocked the London bridges Waterloo Blackfriars Lambeth and Westminster as part of their campaign. According to police, no arrests were made.
On Saturday, the protests continued throughout London. According to the Met activists were walking through central London when they stopped at various places along their unspecified route. This caused disruption. Later in the day, activists gathered at Hyde Park to stage a major demonstration.
Warwickshire police have charged nine people after Just Stop Oil, another climate activist group, staged a demonstration at an oil terminal near Tamworth in Staffordshire. As part of their campaign for the government to stop all new oil-and-gas projects, a dozen activists locked themselves onto pipes.
Similar demonstrations were also held at the Navigator terminal in Thurrock, and Grays terminal, both in Essex. They follow the decision made by key operators such as ExxonMobil, Navigator and Valero to obtain an injunction to stop protestors blocking operations.