As many as 113 climate change activists have been arrested in London as of Tuesday morning for blocking the city’s roads as part of their protests that began the previous day, the Metropolitan Police said.
Police had asked the campaigners to restrict their protest to Marble Arch after they caused widespread disruption on Monday, the BBC reported. The campaigners, under the label Extinction Rebellion, had camped overnight at Waterloo Bridge, Parliament Square and Oxford Circus.
The protest is part of an international campaign planned in 80 cities across 33 countries. The United Kingdom-based group has urged the government to reduce carbon emissions to zero by 2025, declare a climate and ecological emergency and set up a citizens’ assembly on climate and ecological justice.
The police said most of the protestors were detained on suspicion of public order offences and five people were held on Monday on the suspicion of criminal damage at Shell’s HQ. “There have been 113 arrests in total, the majority of which are for breach of Section 14 Notice of the Public Order Act 1986 and obstruction of the highway,” police said.
The group had staged a semi-nude protest at the House of Commons earlier in April.
Here are some images from the protest sites:
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