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Evening Standard
Evening Standard
World
Josh Salisbury

Greta Thunberg: Climate activist detained during Hague eco protest

Climate activist Greta Thunberg was among dozens of people detained by police in The Hague as they removed protesters who were partially blocking a road in the Dutch city.

Ms Thunberg was seen flashing a victory sign as she sat in a bus used by police to take detained demonstrators from the scene of a protest against Dutch subsidies and tax breaks to companies linked to fossil fuel industries.

The Extinction Rebellion campaign group said before the demonstration that the activists would block a main road into The Hague, but a heavy police presence, including officers on horseback, initially prevented the activists from getting on to the road.

A small group of people managed to sit down on another road and were detained after ignoring police orders to leave.

Extinction Rebellion activists have blocked the road that runs past the temporary home of the Dutch parliament more than 30 times to protest against the subsidies.

Greta Thunberg flashes a V-sign after being detained (AP)

The demonstrators waved flags and chanted: "We are unstoppable, another world is possible."

One held a banner reading: “This is a dead end street."

Before she was detained Ms Thunberg told journalists she was protesting because the world is facing an existential crisis.

"We are in a planetary emergency and we are not going to stand by and let people lose their lives and livelihood and be forced to become climate refugees when we can do something," she said.

In February, Ms Thunberg, 21, was acquitted by a London court of refusing to follow a police order to leave a protest blocking the entrance to a major oil and gas industry conference last year.

She had been taking part in a protest outside the InterContinental hotel in Mayfair, the venue for the Energy Intelligence Forum (EIF), a fossil fuel industry summit attended by corporate executives.

The climate activist was also among those staging a demonstration at the Science Museum that same month in a row over fossil fuel sponsorship.

Her activism has been credited with inspiring other young climate activists since she began staging weekly protests outside the Swedish parliament starting in 2018.

She has repeatedly been fined for civil disobedience in connection with the eco-protests.

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