Climate protesters vow to ‘occupy’ London airport

LONDON: Climate protesters from Extinction Rebellion vowed Wednesday to "occupy and shut down" a London airport that connects to the British capital´s global financial hub.

The year-old group is spearheading a two-week global campaign that kicked off Monday with partial shutdowns of traffic in cities stretching from Sydney to New York. Their main focus has been London, where the fast-growing group backed by Swedish teen activist Greta Thunberg was formed by UK academics studying the effects of harmful carbon emissions on Earth.

London police reported making more than 500 arrests in the first two days of protests that included campaigners glueing themselves to the pavement and chaining themselves to cars. Extinction Rebellion said its "Hong Kong style" occupation of London City Airport will start on Thursday at 9:00 am (0800 GMT) and run through Saturday night.

"The Fly Today, No Tomorrow action will involve a ´Hong Kong style´ occupation of the terminal building, lying, sitting or glueing-on in front of the departure and arrivals gates," it said in a statement.

"Hundreds of participants have already signed up to non-violently use their bodies to close the airport, and are willing to sacrifice their liberty to achieve this aim." Extinction Rebellion said it was targeting the east London airport because it was planning a £2-billion ($2.4-billion / 2.2-billion-euro) expansion. The small city hub says on its website that it has begun a £480-million development project designed to quadruple the size of its only terminal.