Orange paint was splattered by Just Stop Oil demonstrators on the iconic London Harrods shop on Thursday. With this event, the group has protested new oil and gas for 20 days in a row. Two protesters can be seen spray painting the upscale department store’s windows orange in a video posted to Just Stop Oil’s Twitter account.
Orange paint was applied to the store’s windows in its entirety. The video was posted on Thursday and has already received over 8,000 views on Twitter.
With banners, the protestors also mounted a sit-in protest on Knightsbridge. Some protestors, according to Standard.co.uk, even glued and fastened themselves to the road.
The footage released on Twitter also show the protesters who spray-painted the store’s windows being escorted away by security personnel. In another video, onlookers and authorities can be seen removing protesters off the road as they maintain their ground.
The tweet from Just Stop Oil states, “BREAKING: KNIGHTSBRIDGE BLOCKED AND HARRODS SPRAY PAINTED Today at 9 a.m., 20 Just Stop Oil activists blocked Knightsbridge in the heart of London to demand an end to the production of new oil and gas. Additionally, two people painted the outside of Harrods department store orange.”
One further tweet states, “Our government is both morally and criminally inept. They are deliberately attempting to speed up the production of fossil fuels, which would cause the greatest expense of living crisis our nation has ever had to worsen while killing millions of people.”
According to Standard.co.uk, the Metropolitan Police subsequently stated that 17 individuals were detained on suspicion of intentional blockage of a roadway at Brompton Road, and two further persons were detained on suspicion of inflicting criminal damage.
By noon, the police had taken them into jail, and the road had been reopened in both directions.
Since the new UK administration of Prime Minister Liz Truss promised to permit additional offshore fossil fuel drilling, Just Stop Oil has intensified its effort to combat an increase in energy costs brought on by Russia’s war in Ukraine.