Members of the UK climate extremist group Just Stop Oil, known for blocking roads in protest of climate change policies, shut down a road in London on Wednesday, November 8th, blocking an ambulance said to have been responding to a life or death emergency.
The incident took place on Waterloo Bridge where a group of 60 members of Just Stop Oil slowly marched across the bridge blocking traffic, causing the road to be closed in both directions for around an hour, the Telegraph reports.
As the protesters were blocking the road, an ambulance attempted to get by, with a paramedic leaving his vehicle to plead with officers on the scene to allow his ambulance to pass through the blockade.
“I am responding to a life and death emergency—I am going to pick up a team from Guy’s and St Thomas’ to save someone’s life at another hospital but can’t get through,” the driver of the ambulance said.
According to The Telegraph, the paramedic was a member of the Guy’s and St Thomas’ Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation Retrieval Team, which uses temporary life support to help those who have had lung failure.
The Just Stop Oil activists later laid down in the road when police attempted to arrest them and then allegedly blamed the police for blocking the road and not allowing the ambulance to get through.
Scotland Yard, meanwhile, blamed the activists for the closure of the road as they laid down on it after being arrested.
“Because of this officers had to temporarily hold traffic, including an ambulance on blue lights,” a London Metropolitan Police spokesperson said.
The spokesperson added:
Officers continually told the activists to move to the pavement so the road could re-open and the ambulance could pass. Most of them [the activists] chose not to work with us, which meant it took longer to re-open the road. Other activists began slow marching on the southbound carriageway which also delayed the re-opening of the road. We lifted the closure at the first opportunity when there were no activists in the road.
Around 40 people in total were arrested by the police just days after 44 others were charged for disruptions in London on Monday, November 6th, including two members of the group who smashed the glass of a painting in the National Gallery.
Police charged 20-year-old Harrison Donnelly and 22-year-old Hanan Ameur with criminal damage after they attacked “The Rokeby Venus” by artist Diego Velázquez, which had previously been attacked in 1914 by a member of the women’s suffrage movement who slashed at the painting in protest of the imprisonment of suffragette activist Emily Pankhurst.
The disruptive protests are just the latest by Just Stop Oil, who have become well known for blocking roads and attacking artwork, including the “Sunflowers” painting by Vincent Van Gogh last year.
In July, British police were given expanded powers to tackle their disruptive behaviour, including the ability to break up protests where they previously had been largely powerless.
“The public have had enough of their lives being disrupted by selfish protesters. The mayhem we’ve seen on our streets has been a scandal,” Home Secretary Suella Braverman stated.
The climate extremist protests have not been limited to the UK as the Climate Emergency Fund, based in the United States, has given funds to various groups across the world to engage in similar protests.
The fund was founded by Getty family fortune Heiress Aileen Getty and has spent millions on activist groups over the years.
