Hundreds of Extinction Rebellion activists flock to Trafalgar Square and march down Pall Mall

Police finally began making mass arrests on Monday evening after London’s West End was paralysed for hours by Extinction Rebellion protesters who had erected a giant pink table in the middle of the road.

Officers moved in after demonstrators ignored repeated demands – made by loudspeaker – for them to leave the area. 

Until they began making mass arrests at 8pm, the Metropolitan police had detained just eight people, despite the fact that the protest began at midday today.  

Officers responded after protesters erected a huge piece of pink furniture – which had the words ‘Change is Now’ and ‘Come to the table’ written on it – on the junction of Long Acre, St Martins Lane and Garrick Street. 

It forced police to close off several roads around the area which would normally be thronged with tourists and families sightseeing. 

Several protesters were seen being carried into police vans as crowds chanted ‘shame on you.’ A small crowd was continuing to remain under the giant table, which was put up near Leicester Square tube station.  Officers have said that they will be confiscating the table when the protesters are finally cleared.  

The group blindsided officers by converging on Trafalgar Square this morning to begin two weeks of what they described as ‘impossible rebellion’.

The group further outsmarted officers by driving vans on two streets surrounding the Long Acre junction, before activists locked chained themselves together while lying under the vehicles’ wheels.

The Met had previously promised to take a harsher approach after previous Extinction Rebellion demonstrations paralysed the capital. 

Officers tried to bring today’s protest to an end by putting in place a cordon which allowed people to leave the area but not to return to it. 

However, this resulted in the area being occupied almost entirely by protesters, forcing the police to move some of their cordons.  

Shop owners, restaurateurs and accountants have been among those to slam the selfish actions of XR activists today as they shared their fury at facing further obstacles on the road to recovery after an already challenging 18-month period. 

Mustafa Ahmadi, 37, who runs Star Gifts near to Leicester Square tube station, fears he could lose as much as £10,000 by the end of the week because of the climate change demo.

His gift shop is close to where thousands of XR protesters have set up a giant pink table and occupied a busy road junction in between Leicester Square and Covent Garden. 

Mr Ahmadi described the protest as ‘another kick in the teeth’ for local businesses and warned the financial impact could be akin to another lockdown.   

He said: ‘It’s like another lockdown because the shop is so quiet. It’s not just me but other businesses around here.

‘The police have many of the roads locked off and so the tourists and families who we would normally see are being kept out.

‘It’s another kick in the teeth. I could lose £10,000 if this carries on to the end of the week.  

Thousands swarmed onto a busy road junction between Leicester Square and Covent Garden, which has now become the focal point for the XR’s two-week long climate change protest.

Commenting on the table stunt, a spokesperson said that four activists ’emerged from the truck that carried the huge object into the square and climbed onto the table’.

The group say they are now ‘preparing to stay for the long haul and occupy the square’.

The spokesperson added: ‘The table launched XR’s Impossible Rebellion, bringing the seemingly impossible to life in outlandish Extinction Rebellion style.

‘The table – packed with a number of built in lock ons, sleeping quarters and its own stereo system – was followed by thousands of marchers from Trafalgar Square who arrived to demand the impossible, many of whom were equipped with pink chairs.

‘As floods, fire and famine break out around the world, it is clear that climate breakdown is here now, and there is no choice left now but to take urgent action.

‘Everyone deserves a seat at the table to have a say in how to tackle the greatest crisis of our times.’

Mr Ahmadi, whose business was shut throughout the lockdown at the start of the year, said: ‘I’m trying to cover what I lost during the Pandemic and this is not helping.

He told MailOnline: ‘They gave us no warning. Many protests come past the shop but we are always given notification. Not today, the protesters turned up just after midday and closed the area down.

‘I’ve no idea how long they plan to stick around. I hope they make their point quickly and then go. Otherwise I want the police to do their job and move them on.

‘We’ve only just re-opened after lockdown and the footfall is already down significantly since the protest began.’

Roberta Marzocca, general manger of the Pizza Pilgrims restaurant, said: ‘We were closed down completely between December and May because of lockdown, the last thing we need is to be hit financially again.

‘The police have some of the roads cordoned off but we hope customers will still come.

‘It’s still too early to tell if we’ll be negatively affected – I really hope not.’ 

At around 6pm on Monday evening, the Met announced on Twitter that the protest on the junction of Long Acre Long Acre, St Martins Lane and Garrick Street had to end by 7pm. 

When that was ignored, they began moving in to make mass arrests.  

Four protesters who had chained themselves themselves together under the front wheel arches of an open top van, which had been parked nearby on Garrick Street, finally began to be removed by officers.

Another two protesters had earlier climbed on top of the van waving XR flags as police watched on. 

At around 6pm, officers moved in and arrested four protesters who had fixed themselves to another van parked on St Martins Lane, near the Noel Coward Theatre.  

Police officers, specially trained to work at heights and to separate people who chain or lock themselves together, were brought in from neighbouring Thames Valley Police but also from as far afield as Merseyside. 

Police have pledged to take a more robust approach to Extinction Rebellion protesters to stop them from paralysing London as they did two years ago.

Activists form the climate change awareness group have set up a giant pink table in the middle of the West End and a crowd of thousands has gathered around it, bringing a bustling part of the city between Leicester Square and Covent Garden to a standstill.

But a senior officer at the scene told MailOnline today that the protesters would not be allowed to occupy the area for days on end like they did during the last summer protests in 2019.

There were no demonstrations last year due to the Coronavirus pandemic but two years ago, XR protesters brought in a pink boat and put it in the middle of Oxford Circus where they remained for a fortnight.

The officer said: ‘You saw the chaos Extinction Rebellion caused during their summer protest in 2019 and how the Met was criticised for not doing enough to stop it.

‘That won’t be allowed to happen again.

‘The protesters who have set up the pink table want to remain in the area for a considerable amount of time, potentially days, but we have teams ready to move them on.

‘Some protesters have chained themselves under a vehicle but we have teams ready to react to that too.

‘They took us by surprise today, we didn’t know they were planning on pitching up here until they put the giant table structure up. Precautions had been put in place in other parts of London but this was unexpected.

‘We now hope they move on, we are not anticipating violence as this is civil disobedience rather than anything more sinister.

‘It’s also just the start of two weeks worth of protests and nobody wants to get arrested so early on.

‘But when the time comes – most likely later today – the protesters will be cleared from the area because we also have a duty to those business owners whose trade may be affected negatively due to this protest.’

One of the protesters who had chained herself to the van said she was called ‘Rosie’ and had travelled to London from the Midlands.

She locked herself in place just after midday and did not know any of the other protesters doing the same.

She said: ‘I am doing this in solidarity with all those who have lost lives, lost homes and lost livelihoods due to the effects of climate change.

‘This is for those who had suffered from the horrendous floods and wildfires, for those people on small island nations which are at risk of being lost to the sea.

‘The rational response is to do something about this – to do what we can. I’ve no idea if this is going to work but I have to try and do something. It’s no good just burying my head.

‘My mood is one of determination, I want to stay here under the van for as long as possible, for as long as it takes.’

The crowd had earlier meandered through the West End, past theatres, from Trafalgar Square where the protest had begun just after 10am.

Samba bands banged drums and blew whistles and protesters chanted slogans under the watchful gaze of hundreds of police officers, who are attempting to stop London from being paralysed as in previous years.

However, frustrated motorists in vans and lorries brought to a standstill vented their anger at being caught up in the traffic nightmare.

One refrigerator repairman fumed: ‘It’s hard enough getting through London at the best of times let alone when people are blocking the road.

‘I get that they are protesting but I’m trying to get to work and so are many other people. It’s not on’ 

Gail Bradbrook, co-founder of the activist group, opened the ‘Impossible Rebellion’ with a speech expressing solidarity with nations that are disproportionately affected by climate change. 

Campaigners held placards with messages including ‘Code red, where’s the action’ while four people were dressed as the sea in a warning over rising sea levels. 

The demonstration signals the start of a fortnight’s action by Extinction Rebellion (XR), who are staging various protests across the capital.

A small group of activists started early yesterday, with three of them scaling the Guildhall in the City and daubing red paint onto the building and unfurling a banner proclaiming ‘co-liberation freedom together’ in front of a crowd of supporters. Nine people were later arrested.

Both the Metropolitan Police and City of London Police were on high alert for similar stunts today with officers patrolling outside high-risk buildings like St Paul’s Cathedral and the London Stock Exchange.  

XR organisers had asked supporters to gather at Trafalgar Square for 10am this morning.

A large group – made up of three separate Samba bands – had met in St James’ Park, just behind Downing Street, an hour beforehand under the watchful gaze of the police.

They were given an escort to Trafalgar Square, holding up traffic for ten minutes and prompting irritated motorists to honk their car horns in frustration.

Two Metropolitan Police helicopters hovered overhead monitoring the crowd below.

After an hour in the square – where some of the 1,000 gathered listened to speeches on climate change -they began to march once more and again block the road.

Some had banners which read ‘Code Red for Humanity’ and ‘Rebel for Life’ while many others waved colourful flags bearing the XR hourglass symbol.

XR activist Jenn Parkhouse, 55, was part of a group who had travelled into London from Norwich.

She told MailOnline: ‘We now run out of time, there must be no more dilly dallying around.

‘The Government must now stop all fossil fuel investment – and that goes to the banks, particularly U.S banks who are massive offenders and have invested trillions of dollars into fossil fuels despite signing up to the 2015 Paris agreement.

‘The time for talking is over, we are on the precipice now. How can our Government continue to ignore report after reports that carbon emissions have reached pandemic proportions?

‘We need to act to halt this climate catastrophe, and we have take a similar approach to how we have coped with the COVID pandemic. This is a climate and eco crisis and we are in grave danger.’

Oliver Baines, 70, was one of 100 activists who had made the gruelling six-hour journey into London from Cornwall.

He said: ‘We have to end the extraction of fossil fuels, it’s a simple, clear message and we just do not have any more time to waste

‘There have been too many words, now is the time for action. We have activists here from all over the country. There will be actions in the city, that’s for sure.

‘The Guildhall was targeted because it’s a symbol of the City. The City has profited from slave trade, arms investment and of course from investing in fossil fuels and it now needs to step up and do the right thing and stop that investment now.’

Red paint can still be seen above the entrance to the Guildhall, although the area was quiet this morning.

Police scuffled with protesters outside the building yesterday at about 8pm and brought in a ladder to remove protesters who had climbed onto an alcove above the main entrance.

Of the nine arrests, three were on suspicion of criminal damage and a further five were arrested for conspiracy to cause criminal damage.

A further person was arrested for going equipped to cause criminal damage, The Met said.

The movement has gained support from celebrities such as comedian and author Stephen Fry and actor Jerome Flynn.

In a video shared on Twitter, Fry praised the group for attempting to ‘make politicians really recalibrate, realign, revolutionise politics’ through their ‘mucky’ and ‘disruptive’ demonstrations.

Flynn attended a protest on Sunday evening in which three activists scaled the entrance of the Guildhall building in central London.

A crowd of about 200 people gathered as the trio sprayed red spray paint over the walls of the building and unfurled a banner reading ‘co-liberation freedom together’.

The Game Of Thrones actor told the PA news agency it was ‘more urgent than ever’ for people to take a stand together.

‘We’ve gotten used to certain systems that are life destructive, we created them, we’ve become addicted to them and we know the world is burning as a result,’ he said.

Extinction Rebellion vowed to return to the streets earlier this month following a string of victories in court which saw activists successfully appeal convictions for previous stunts. 

Their latest protest comes after a major science review by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change confirmed that human activity such as burning fossil fuels was unequivocally driving the climate crisis, with impacts such as deadly heatwaves, floods and storms already being felt. 

In November the UK will host the international Cop26 summit where the pressure will be on world leaders to increase action to urgently cut greenhouse gases and avoid even more dangerous global warming.