TWENTY THREE MORE people have been arrested in connection with the Extinction Rebellion climate change protests in London.
London’s Metropolitan Police said that as of 4pm this afternoon 1,088 arrests had been made on connection with the protests which have taken place over the last week, and that 69 people had now been charged.
Of those arrested today, 12 are women and 11 are men. They are aged between 19 and 70. They all remain in police custody at this time.
Protests have been ongoing since last Monday, with demonstrators blocking bridges and roads in London.
Police have said that Waterloo Bridge in the city was reopened and sites at Oxford Street and Parliament Square which had been closed were also reopened.
On Sunday, Swedish teenage climate activist Greta Thunberg – who has become the face of the anti-climate change movement – addressed the demonstrators, telling them: “Humanity is standing at a crossroads.”
Organisers said they were willing to switch tactics from disruption to dialogue next week – if the government enters talks with them.
Extinction Rebellion was established last year in Britain by academics and has become one of the world’s fastest-growing environmental movements.
Campaigners want governments to declare a climate and ecological emergency, reduce greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2025, halt biodiversity loss and be led by new “citizens’ assemblies on climate and ecological justice.
Dublin also saw people take to the streets as part of the Extinction Rebellion movement on Friday and Saturday.
Protesters staged a sit down protest on O’Connell Bridge for about five hours in the afternoon and evening.
Police in London have now imposed restrictions on the area of protest at the Marble Arch area, limiting the space in which protesters can demonstrate.
With reporting from © AFP 2019
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