SIX activists have been arrested after pouring 300 litres of blood-red dye into the US Embassy in London’s pond.
Greenpeace has said that the dye highlights the death and devastation caused in Gaza as a direct result of the US’s continued sale of arms to Israel.
The stunt in Nine Elms on Thursday morning led to the arrest of six people – who arrived disguised as delivery riders on bicycles – including the organisation’s co-executive director Will McCallum.
McCallum was detained by police on suspicion of conspiracy to cause criminal damage, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, the group added in a statement.
A Metropolitan Police spokesperson said: “At 07:30am on Thursday, April 10 officers on duty at the US Embassy in Nine Elms became aware of a group of Greenpeace protesters putting red dye into the pond at the side of the building.
Greenpeace activists in the UK used red dye to turn the US Embassy’s waterfalls into a river of blood, for Washington’s involvement in Israel’s genocide in Gaza pic.twitter.com/130VU3AcpL
— Afshin Rattansi (@afshinrattansi) April 10, 2025
“The group made off but officers responded quickly and carried out a search of the area.
“Six people have so far been arrested nearby on suspicion of criminal damage and conspiracy to cause criminal damage.
“The pond is accessible via a public footpath.
“There was no breach or attempted breach of the secure perimeter of the site.”
The charity stressed that the dye is non-toxic and biodegradable, as well as that the UK is also to blame, highlighting that while the Labour Government suspended 30 of its 350 arms export licences to Israel in September last year, this “didn’t go far enough” given F-35 fighter jet parts were excluded.
Sacha Deshmukh, CEO of Amnesty International UK, hit out at the arrest.
“Amnesty International has serious concerns about these reports,” he said.
“The right to peacefully protest is a fundamental human right. The police have an obligation to act proportionately and only make arrests when strictly necessary.
"It is not clear why they thought it was proportionate and necessary to arrest people for adding non-toxic biodegradable dye to a large open-air pond.
“Of even greater concern is the decision to arrest the CEO of a major national NGO on conspiracy charges.
"The use of conspiracy charges in this way is a growing trend in policing in this country, which turns participating in organising peaceful protests into a criminal act. It is having a chilling effect on free speech, and our right to peacefully protest.”
