Unacceptable Action: Fake Paint UseTo Deface London Landmarks

Protesters marched with signs reading ‘fossil fuel finance is killing the Earth’ and ‘the financial industry is bleeding the Earth dry’.

The climate activists launched a week of action on Monday, with members occupying parts of London including Parliament Square and Oxford Circus. The group daubed the Guildhall in the City of London with red paint and accused financial institutions of making ‘blood money’.

Fake blood was also poured over the London Stock Exchange and the headquarters of the banking and financial services company Standard Chartered.

Protesters have threatened two weeks of disruption, prompting the Metropolitan Police to draft in extra officers from elsewhere in the country ahead of the weekend.

So far 305 arrests have been made over the protests for a wide variety of offences, including 112 on Tuesday alone.

Extinction Rebellion said in a statement: ‘The Guildhall is the administrative and ceremonial heart of the corporation of the City of London.

‘It is the symbolic and actual centre of the system that is killing us.’

Yesterday, activists dyed the water red in the fountains outside Buckingham Palace.

Extinction Rebellion is calling on the government to halt all new fossil fuel investment immediately.

Meanwhile, the Metropolitan Police said it is preparing to deploy thousands of extra officers in the capital over the bank holiday weekend to police further climate protests as well as other planned events.

Deputy assistant commissioner Matt Twist said: ‘As we head into the weekend, we are ready to respond to a number of different demonstrations by protest groups, including Extinction Rebellion.

‘This past week, officers have worked hard to balance the rights of the protesters with those of the community, however on many occasions demonstrators’ actions became unreasonable and they caused or tried to cause serious disruption to the public and businesses.

‘Activists have frustrated the policing response by using complex lock-on devices which take time for officers to safely remove.

‘They have also used paint to deface London landmarks – action which we consider is totally unacceptable.

‘Like everyone else, Extinction Rebellion have the right to assemble and protest, however this is a qualified right, and they do not have the right to cause serious and unreasonable disruption to others.

‘The unreasonable disruption caused by Extinction Rebellion, particularly as London continues to recover from the pandemic, is deeply frustrating, especially for communities who will see local officers pulled into central London in response.’