Black Lives Matter occupy London City Airport runway

  • 06/09/2016
The BLM protest (BLM/Twitter)
The BLM protest (BLM/Twitter)

Black Lives Matter has forced the cancellation of flights at London City Airport after protesters managed to gain access to the runway.

Met Police say they were alerted to the incident at around 5:40am (local time), and arrived to find nine protesters had "locked themselves together" on the runway.

Black Lives Matter UK has claimed responsibility.

"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," they say.

"We note, however, that the UK is willing to charter special flights to remove black people from the country based on their immigration status."

They continue to say: "This action was taken in order to highlight the UK's environmental impact on the lives of black people locally and globally. As the largest per capita contributor to global temperature change, and yet among the least vulnerable to its deadly effects, the UK leads in ensuring that our climate crisis is a racist crisis."

Scotland Yard says they are "negotiating" with the group - however it will take time to "unlock the protesters".

Newshub.