LONDON: More than 1,000 people have been arrested in environmental protests, as police branded one activist reckless and dangerous for climbing on top of a plane. The fourth day of Extinction Rebellion demonstrations focused on London City Airport, where protesters attempted a “Hong Kong-style occupation of the terminal building” with hundreds blocking the main entrance.Activists also blocked the entrance road, climbed on to the terminal roof and glued themselves to the entrance of the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) station serving the east London airport.Extinction Rebellion claims planned expansion of the airport is incompatible with meeting the Government’s legally binding commitment to cut emissions to net-zero by 2050.An Aer Lingus flight from City Airport to Dublin was delayed when a protester on board stood up to deliver a lecture on climate change just as the plane was due to take off. And one man, identified by Extinction Rebellion as former Paralympic cyclist James Brown, who is visually impaired, managed to get on top of a British Airways plane at the airport. His actions were branded “reckless, stupid and dangerous” by Met Commissioner Dame Cressida Dick. She said: “My early understanding is somebody has been arrested after they... presumably bought a ticket, went through security perfectly normally, went up the steps of a plane and hurled themselves on top of a plane.“Actually, that was a reckless, stupid and dangerous thing to do for all concerned. But I think you can see that is quite a hard thing to predict or stop from happening.”Police said more than 1,000 people have been arrested this week since protests began around Parliament and Whitehall on Monday, including around 50 at the airport on Thursday. Dame Cressida insisted Scotland Yard has enough cells to hold and process all of the activists, but she said officers were being taken away from tackling knife crime or safeguarding children to police the demonstrations.She said the protesters were “utterly irresponsible and completely unreasonable” for their determination to take Over and occupy important arterial roads in London for a two-week period. But in a statement, Extinction Rebellion raised concerns that extreme weather caused by climate change would lead to crop losses, food crises, social unrest...”
10-11-2019, 12:18 PM
Over 1,000 held in London climate protests
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