Black Lives Matter protest stops flights at London airport

London City Airport

Police officers surround Black Lives Matter protesters on the runway at London

Police officers surround Black Lives Matter protesters on the runway at London
Police officers surround Black Lives Matter protesters on the runway at London

A protest about environmental racism and an airline technical problem combined on Tuesday, to disrupt traffic at three of London’s airports, prompting complaints, arrests and delays.

The airport and London police disclosed that the main focus was on a group of nine activists, allegedly from the Black Lives Matter UK organisation, who chained themselves to an object on a runway at London City Airport.

Metropolitan Police reported that seven of the protesters had been arrested on trespassing charges, but only two removed.

A source tweeted that “We’re currently experiencing disruption to all flights due to protesters at the airport, and police are currently on the scene.

“Police noted that work continues to remove the rest”.

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The source said that it was not clear what connection the protesters had to the US-based Black Lives Matter movement, which protested police violence in the United States, targeted at black people.

Meanwhile, a Twitter account believed to belong to the demonstrators said they were protesting climate change, which was exacerbated by jet fuel emissions and which had a disproportionate effect on black people in Africa.

Separately, delays were reported at London’s Gatwick and Heathrow airports after British Airways said a computer upgrade was causing problems.

The airline said it had fixed the problem, but that it may take a while to process the backlog of passengers affected by the delay.

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