Three arrests as oil protesters lock themselves together at Broadford Bridge

A group of people held a ‘Greet the Dawn’ meditation at 5am to join fellow protesters across the world and call on UK Oil and Gas to stop drilling for World Environment Day.

Three protesters, two men and a woman, then locked themselves to concrete in front of the gate at the drilling site.

And nearly 20 police officers arrived on the scene including a protest removal team, who used specialist equipment to cut the protesters free safely.

A spokesman for the Broadford Bridge Action Group said: “It was a peaceful protest with both the protestors and police managing the situation respectfully. Work was stopped on the site for the duration of the protest.”

Nicola Peel, an environmentalist from Pulborough, who was there to witness the events said: “Yesterday was World Environment Day so we decided on behalf of future generations we would stand united with those in Nigeria, America and all those facing contamination risks from the oil industry and potential threats it is causing.

“We came here to unite and some of the water protectors decided to lock on which has been a massive success.

“The operation was closed, the road was closed and it was mission successful for us to raise awareness of the severity of the risks here.

“Technically it worked really well and everybody was pleased that it was able to slow down the process here and raise awareness.”

A police spokesman confirmed that three people were arrested outside the oil exploration site.

The statement from police added: “The three locked themselves together at the entrance to the site and a specialist protest removal team was called in to safely cut them free.

“A 23-year-old man of no fixed address, a 25-year-old man of no fixed address and a 31-year-old woman from Crawley were all arrested on suspicion of use of violence or intimidation on person, family or property to compel activity or abstention from lawful activity.

“They were questioned and released under investigation.”

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