London: Six arrests amid Extinction Rebellion protests as Olympians scale oil tanker
Six people have been arrested after Extinction Rebellion activists, including a pair of Olympians, scaled a Shell oil tanker.
The Met police confirmed six arrests for vehicle interference had been made on Saturday, the BBC reported.
Climate change activists had been demonstrating in central London against the government funding fossil fuels.
It was not known if the two Olympians were among those arrested.
In a blog post, Extinction Rebellion said gold medal-winning canoeist Etienne Stott and sailor Laura Baldwin were participating in the action.
The Met police said they attended Bayswater Road at around 8.50am and the road was now open again.
In a statement via the protest group, Stott, who retired from sport in 2016, said he was aware his actions would “cause anger to many people” and he was “prepared to be held accountable.”
“But our government should also be held to account for its decisions which are destroying our planet’s ability to support human civilisation,” he added.
The climate change group has upped its demonstrations in the capital in recent weeks and dubbed Saturday as ‘Action Saturday’ with demos planned in Hyde Park and elsewhere.
Last week, CityA.M. reported that scientists aligned to Extinction Rebellion glued themselves to the department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) building. The action was in response to BEIS eyeing plans to shore up the UK’s energy security amid the war in Ukraine.
What’s more, City insurance titan Lloyd’s of London requested all its employees to work from home on Tuesday after Extinction Rebellion blocked entrances.
“In the interests of our people’s safety, we have advised Corporation employees and market participants not to come to the building today,” Lloyd’s said.
In response to the group’s claims, BEIS said it was “gradually driving demand for oil and gas.” However, the department said there could not be a “cliff edge” by switching off the country’s domestic source “overnight”.
A BEIS spokesperson added: “We are gradually driving down demand for oil and gas, but we cannot have a cliff edge by turning off our domestic source overnight. Doing so would put our energy security, British jobs and industries at risk and simply increase foreign imports, not reduce demand. Our British Energy Security Strategy sets out a long-term plan to ramp up cheap renewables as we transition away from expensive fossil fuels.”