Thirteen arrested over Heathrow protest

Thirteen climate change activists are in custody after chaining themselves to railings on the north runway at Heathrow Airport.

The members of activist group Plane Stupid cut a hole in a fence at around 3.30am (1003 AEST) on Monday before laying down on the tarmac.

The campaigners, who were protesting against airport expansion, were cut free and removed by police.

A video posted online showed several activists chained together and being spoken to by an officer.

The officer told them, “As a consequence of you being here you are causing severe disruption and it will be in the millions of pounds because it will take us a while to remove you.

“The cost will be in the couple of millions. The airport will attempt to make a civil recovery.”

He added, “There are international flights now being diverted.”

The Metropolitan Police confirmed some of the demonstrators chained themselves together using a so-called tripod.

In a later statement police said: “There were 13 protesters in total on the north runway. All 13 have been arrested on suspicion of Aviation Act offences and remain in custody”.

Ella Gilbert, one of the activists on the runway, said: “Building more runways goes against everything we’re being told by scientists and experts on climate change.

“This would massively increase carbon emissions exactly when we need to massively reduce them. That’s why we’re here.

“We want to say sorry to anyone whose day we’ve ruined, and we’re not saying that everybody who wants to fly is a bad person. It’s those who fly frequently and unnecessarily who are driving the need for expansion, and we cannot keep ignoring the terrifying consequences of flying like there’s no tomorrow.

The demonstration caused delays for passengers around the world and 22 flights out of the airport were cancelled.

Travellers took to Twitter to vent their frustration.

One passenger, Jonathan Peat, posted, “What’s happening at Heathrow. Waiting to leave Newcastle and been told there are protesters on runway?”

Afzal Ashraf, a consultant fellow at defence and security think-tank the Royal United Services Institute, said the security breach is a “concern”.

“If they did manage to get to a runway before being apprehended then there is a bit of an issue,” he said.

“If a terrorist group came up to the fence it would take a few minutes to cut through. It’s very easy to get to a fence before the police are able to react.”

Mr Ashraf said the incident “does raise questions” about security at the airport.

A Heathrow Airport spokesman said: “This morning a group of people staged a protest on the northern runway. These individuals have since been removed by police.

“Both runways were operational throughout, although there have been some delays and a few cancellations – we are sorry to those passengers who experienced disruption this morning.

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