Motorists dragged Just Stop Oil protesters off the road as campaigners brought traffic to a standstill across four roads in central London on Saturday.
The group said 61 Just Stop Oil supporters stopped traffic on Charing Cross Road, Kensington High Street, Kennington Road and Blackfriars Road, “demanding that the government halt all new oil and gas consents and licences”.
Shortly after midday on Saturday they posted a series of videos on Twitter, showing protesters in bright orange vests sitting across some of the city’s main roads.
In several cases, members of the public shouted abuse and dragged protesters onto the nearby sidewalk.
The drivers dragged the protesters off the road, but they constantly returned to reclaim their places.
A man threw a traffic bollard into the road near where they were sitting and people grabbed their signs and threw them to the ground.
Just Stop Oil protests in London on Saturday. Photograph: Henry Nicholls/Reuters
The group quoted some of the protest participants, including Anna Berrill, a 20-year-old philosophy student from Leeds, who said: “I’m doing this because it breaks my heart to witness the tragedies that are happening and will continue to happen because of our actions, and living in a ruined world and doing nothing is unbearable.”
Helen Redfern, 57, a grandmother-of-four and social enterprise founder from Gateshead, said: “Today I am joining the Just Stop Oil campaign because, for me, taking non-violent direct action seems to be the only option what’s left for me
Another added: “The government is not taking the devastating effects of the climate emergency seriously. They are still granting new oil and gas licenses when it is clear that oil and gas are the problem, not the solution.
“I can no longer stand by and watch people suffer around the world, knowing that if we don’t act quickly, more and more people will suffer more and more climate-related disasters now and in the future.”
At the time of writing, the videos had been live for an hour and had been viewed more than 30,000 times collectively.
The Metropolitan Police tweeted: “We are aware of Just Stop Oil protests in Kensington High Street, Charing Cross Road, Kennington Park Road and Blackfriars Road. Police attended the scene immediately and a number of arrests have been made.
“Protesters have used ‘blockade’ and stuck to the road. Charing Cross Road has been cleared and is open to traffic again. Work is underway to reopen the rest of the roads as soon as possible.”
Earlier this month, the Public Order Bill passed through the Commons, targeting “criminal, disruptive and self-destructive guerrilla tactics” used by groups such as Just Stop Oil and Insulate Britain.
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It would introduce tough penalties for “lockdown” protests, regularly used by groups such as Extinction Rebellion (XR) and Just Stop Oil, as well as new offenses of interfering with key national infrastructure, obstructing major transport works and causing serious disruption by of people tunneling
It has met with significant opposition from climate activist groups, civil rights organizations and various politicians.
Labor leader Sir Keir Starmer has said he will press ahead with Tory plans for tough sentences for climate protesters who block roads, despite reiterating Labour’s promise of no new oil and gas licences.
Just Stop Oil has vowed to continue its disruptive protests until the government imposes the death penalty for its actions.
As well as stopping traffic in London every day this month, the group has recently attracted headlines for targeting famous works of art in their protests.
Earlier this month, two young men visiting Room 43 of London’s National Gallery took off their coats to reveal T-shirts emblazoned with Just Stop Oil. They then poured tomato soup through one of Vincent van Gogh’s sunflower paintings asking “Which is more valuable: art or life?”
Dutch police arrested three people at the Mauritshuis museum in The Hague on Thursday after a Just Stop Oil protester tried to glue his ear to Johannes Vermeer’s Golden Age masterpiece Girl with a Pearl Earring.