(London) Two environmental activists from Just Stop Oil climbed a motorway bridge over the River Thames near London on Monday morning, causing major traffic jams days after other activists from the group threw soup on the streets. Sunflowers by Van Gogh.
Posted at 10:58 a.m.
At 5 a.m., the two men climbed more than 80 meters on one of the towers of the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, Just Stop Oil wrote in a press release.
The police confirmed that they blocked traffic on this bridge on the highway bypassing the capital, used by around 160,000 vehicles every day.
Just Stop Oil asks the government of Liz Truss to put an end to the exploitation of hydrocarbons in the country, exploitation that the Prime Minister has decided to accelerate.
One of the activists, Morgan Trowland, posted a video of him at the top of the bridge on this social network. “I’m ready to do this because I’m not ready to sit around and watch it all burn,” he says. “Our government has put in place suicidal laws to accelerate oil production, killing human lives and destroying our environment,” said the 39-year-old, a bridge design engineer.
“I can’t challenge this madness from my desk designing bridges, so I’m taking direct action.”
This latest demonstration by Just Stop Oil is part of their series of actions that began at the beginning of October against the exploitation of hydrocarbons.
On Sunday, activists from this group attacked a dealership of the luxury car brand Aston Martin in central London, spraying the window with orange paint.
On Friday two activists attacked Van Gogh’s masterpiece Sunflowers at the National Gallery, sprinkling tomato soup on the painting protected by glass.
Faced with these recurrent demonstrations, the government has decided to strengthen the powers of the police.
In a column published on Sunday in The Mail on SundayInterior Minister Suella Braverman, announced that the security law currently before Parliament will give the police new powers to take more “proactive” action against these groups, which she has already denounced by the past the actions of “guerrilla”.