The Met Police were called to the London City Airport at around 5.40am after nine protestors belonging to the Black Lives Matter movement blocked the runway. Inbound flights have been forced to divert.
Seven people have been arrested and two currently remain on the runway. Scotland Yard is investigation how they got onto the runway. There are speculations they may have swam across the Thames or traveled by boat.
According to BLM, which took responsibility for the crime, said the protest was to “highlight the UK’s environmental impact on the lives of black people locally and globally.”
They claim that “climate crisis is a racist crisis” and that the UK is one of the biggest contributors to climate change yet the least vulnerable.
They also add that by 2050, there will be millions upon millions of Sub-sahran Africans affected by climate change.
“Whilst at London City Airport a small elite is able to fly, in 2016 alone 3,176 migrants are known to have died or gone missing in the Mediterranean.
“Black people are the first to die, not the first to fly, in this racist climate crisis.
“We note, however, that the UK is willing to charter special flights to remove black people from the country based on their immigration status.”
BLM first began back in 2012 when George Zimmerman was found not guilty of murdering Trayvon Martin. Since then, police killing of black people has become a highly controversial issue and has spread from America to other parts of the western world, including the UK.
