Just Stop Oil protesters blockade central London petrol stations

theguardian.com:

Environmental protesters have taken action at petrol stations in central London, vandalising pumps, blockading entrances and spraypainting “no new oil” across signs.

The Just Stop Oil campaign said 51 of its supporters took part in the protests at seven petrol stations on Friday morning. Some groups staged sit-down protests at entrances or glued themselves to pumps, while others moved from station to station damaging pumps.

“Today’s action was timed to coincide with the announcement by Ofgem of a massive increase in electricity bills for October which will push millions more into poverty, forced to choose between heating and eating,” the group said in a statement.

Friday’s protests were the third day of actions taken by supporters of Just Stop Oil this week, after it took a hiatus over the summer. The group says it is building up towards mass blockades of Westminster in October.

In a statement on Twitter, the Metropolitan police said: “Protesters have targeted a number of petrol stations this morning, causing disruption [and] damaging pumps. Officers are at each of the targeted locations, we have made a number of arrests [and] specialist teams are removing those who are glued to pumps.”

Phoebe Frewer, from Brighton, was among nine protesters blocking access to a BP garage on Western Avenue at about 6.30am. Electronic displays on the pumps were smashed and spraypainted, the station’s signage graffitied, and police were parked nearby with blue lights flashing. One activist was arrested and taken away, according to others on the scene.

“We have picked this location because it is in the 99th percentile of the worst pollution in the UK,” Frewer, 20, said. “There’s a study by Imperial College London in 2019 and they basically said