Climate protesters have whale of a time at London museum

Extinction Rebellion protestors lay down inside the Natural History Museum in London. Photo / AP

Climate change activists staged their latest protest in London yesterday when they took part in a so called "die-in" at the Natural History Museum.

About 100 members of the Extinction Rebellion (XR) group, some wearing red face paint, veils and robes, gathered beneath the museum's blue whale skeleton — named Hope — to raise awareness of the climate crisis they say is threatening the planet.

Those taking part in the event lay down in the museum's great hall, with some tourists joining in. The "die-in" ended after about half an hour, with the protesters breaking into applause.

The demonstration took place as Scotland Yard confirmed that 1065 people, including former Olympic canoeing champion Etienne Stott, had now been arrested during the week-long protests in London.

Stott, 39, who won C2 canoe slalom gold at London 2012, was arrested on Monday by police who moved in to clear the remaining XR demonstrators who were blocking Waterloo Bridge.

Speaking before his arrest, Stott, who was made an MBE in 2013 for services to canoeing, said: "I don't think there is anything more meaningful that I could be doing in my life right now. I feel like it is really tough to disrupt people's lives like this, but this is really important because I believe the disruption that will come down the line if we do not declare a climate emergency and do not tackle this situation of climate change, it will just dwarf any inconvenience here today."

Waterloo Bridge, which had been closed for a week, was cleared yesterday when police removed the last group of demonstrators.

Protests at Oxford Street and Parliament Square were also cleared over the holiday weekend, but about 800 activists remained at the protest at Marble Arch.

A spokesman for the group said there were no plans to escalate activity but warned that the disruption could get "much worse" if politicians did not agree to their negotiation requests.