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British police say total of climate activists arrested passes 750

Police officers arrest and carry away a climate change activist from a demonstration blocking Waterloo Bridge in London on April 20, 2019, on the sixth day of an environmental protest by the Extinction Rebellion group. (AFP photo)

Police in the British capital London have been forced to call reinforcements from other areas in the country as arrests from six days of climate protests in the city reaches to more than 750 people.

The Metropolitan Police (the Met) said on Saturday that more than 200 officers had to be called from South East England to help forces police protests by climate activists who have brought part of the capital to a standstill since the action began on Monday.

Some 28 people have been formally charged with disrupting the public order. The Met said those released under investigation “will be brought back to be formally interviewed and charged as appropriate in due course”.

Scotland Yard, the police unit which deals with crimes, said they had asked for a “protest removal team” and several “basic deployment units” that would provide support to the officers in London policing the noisy protesters.

Six days of the protests led by environment group Extinction Rebellion has disrupted normal life in major areas of London including in Marble Arch, Oxford Circus, Waterloo Bridge and Parliament Square.

The protesters have demanded more government action to tackle climate change. Specifically, they have asked for a legislation which could cut UK’s greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2025.

The action has left a huge impact on London’s transport system over the past days. Protesters had even warned to disrupt flights at London’s Heathrow airport, one of the busiest travel hubs in the world, on the first day of the Easter break on Friday when some 250,000 people were expected to use facility.


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