Laura Amherst, 31, from Brighton, sat on a piece of street furniture topless with XR stickers covering her nipples. He said: “By taking these arguably drastic actions, I hope that it makes some of the passersby, or the people who read about it, think about why we are worried enough to do that and it conveys there really is something to worry about.” Tristan Strange, 39, from Swindon, was chained to another activist beneath the chassis of a flatbed truck. Police later said they had made 52 arrests in relation to the protest. By 8.30pm a small nucleus of protesters remained around the table structure. XR protesters targeted for arrest responded by lying supine on the floor, forcing police to use four officers to carry away each protester.

The order, signed by Supt Wayne Matthews, and publicised via social media, said he believed the assembly “may result in serious disruption to the community”. As reggae played from a mobile sound system, officers moved into the crowd and began making arrests. Activists used lock-on devices to block the roads leading to their occupation, which they said they believed they could keep going for days.Īt 7pm, police announced through a van-mounted loudspeaker that they had imposed conditions on the protest under section 14 of the Public Order Act. Numbers appeared lower than at previous XR protests, with the location seemingly chosen as one that would look crowded even with comparatively few protesters. Protesters remained in place throughout the day, with officers from the Metropolitan police attempting to impose one-way cordons on the protest that allowed people to leave but prevented any more from joining. Photograph: Wayne Tippetts/Rex/Shutterstock Protesters gather in Trafalgar Square for day one of the ‘impossible rebellion’.

Rebellion by H.L. Day