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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
National
Maryam Zakir-Hussain and Mustafa Qadri

Just Stop Oil protesters blocking road to Buckingham Palace glue themselves to The Mall

PA

Police have removed Just Stop Oil protestors glued to the road of the Mall outside of Buckingham Palace.

Specialist officers used plastic syringes to debond the protesters who had glued themselves to the ground or to each other.

The liquid was squirted into the activists’ hands, which allowed the police to separate the protesters from the road or each other before they searched and detained the campaigners.

Police officers search and detain a demonstrator during a 'Just Stop Oil' protest outside Buckingham Palace (REUTERS)

Around 30 activists started sitting on the road at 8.45am wearing orange high-visibility jackets and holding Just Stop Oil banners. All have now been removed.

While one taxi driver shouted profanities, telling the protestors to “get a real job”, one Scottish man on a bike shouted words of support. He said: “Go on the protestors, you’re doing great work. Stay strong.”

Emma Brown, 31, one of the protestors arrested in today’s protest, said that the activists “would walk 500 miles” to “just stop oil”.

Ms Brown said that the protesters had come down from Scotland and that this was her first demonstration.

Emma Brown, a campaigner from Just Stop Oil during a protest on The Mall (PA)

She said: “We’ve come down because the government is pressing ahead with over 100 new fossil fuel licences.

“And that is literally a death sentence for all of us here and for all of you.

“So we can’t allow this to continue. We have to have a cut-off somewhere. We’ve seen the effects already on our doorstep. We’re seeing the effects all over the globe. And this madness has to stop.”

'Just Stop Oil' protesters block a road outside Buckingham Palace (REUTERS)

Before the arrests began, police officers and special liaison officers were talking to the protestors.

One police officer asked: “How long are you going to be here?” A protester replied: “Until we get a new government.”

Police speak to campaigners from Just Stop Oil during a protest outside Buckingham Palace (PA)

“The idea is to continue this until our demand is bet. We are going to be here everyday for the rest of October,” Alex De Koning, 24, told The Independent.

Alex De Koning, 24, says the protestors will continue their demonstration everyday ‘until our demand is met’ (Mustafa Qadri)

“This is what is needed to make change. We cannot take this anymore. This is how history happens.”

On seeing the police arrest his fellow campaigners, he said: “It’s a really sad thing to see the police carting away my friends like this. They don’t want to get arrested, I don’t want to get arrested.

“But unfortunately we’re in such a dire situation right now. 40C in London, wildfires in France being put out with liquid manure because they ran out of water, 27C in the North Pole- so hot you can take your jumper off in the North Pole. It’s terrifying.”

Just Stop Oil has said protestors will be campaigning everyday outside of Downing Street at 11am for the whole of October.

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