A group of Black Lives Matter activists whose protest temporarily shut down a London airport Tuesday have been arrested and removed from the runway, police said.
Nine protesters caused flights to be suspended at London City Airport by locking themselves together on the runway and erecting a tripod, London’s Metropolitan Police said in a statement.
Black Lives Matter UK, a network of anti-racism activists, said in a statement that the action was taken to protest Britain’s “environmental impact on the lives of black people locally and globally.”
The police said the protesters were arrested on suspicion of aggravated trespass, being unlawfully airside and breaching London City Airport bylaws, and were taken into custody.
The statement was issued nearly six hours after police were alerted of the protest.
Some scheduled arrivals were diverted to Southend Airport while the protest was underway, an airport representative said.
London City Airport tweeted that the runway has since reopened, and it advised passengers to check with their airlines for flight information.
Protest cites ‘racist climate crisis’
London City Airport, the fifth busiest airport in the London region, is popular with corporate travelers due to its proximity to Canary Wharf and the City of London, the British capital’s two financial centers.
Black Lives Matter UK said the centrally located airport was planning to expand its capacity, which would negatively affect the surrounding community in one of London’s most deprived areas.
The group’s statement said the UK’s impact on the environment was global, with “7 out of 10 of the countries most affected by climate change … in sub-Saharan Africa.” Climate change, it said, was creating huge numbers of climate refugees.
“Whilst at London City Airport a small elite is able to fly, in 2016 alone 3,176 migrants are known to have died or gone missing in the Mediterranean, fleeing conditions that they did not create because cheaper, easier and most importantly safer avenues have been blocked by the UK and other European countries,” the statement said.
“Black people are the first to die, not the first to fly, in this racist climate crisis.”
An image tweeted from the Black Lives Matter UK account showed the protesters on the runway, alongside banners saying “Black Lives Matter” and “Climate Crisis Is a Racist Crisis.”