Eco protesters’ road chaos sparks fury in Rome where furious drivers drag them out of the way of vehicles after pleading with them to move
- Activists from Ultima Generazione (Last Generation) blockaded Rome motorway sparking fury among drivers
- Angry motorists desperately pleaded for them to get out of the way of traffic as they sat on the road
- Video shows how police and motorists ended up dragging the demonstrators away from the ringroad
Advertisement
Furious drivers have resorted to dragging away a group of eco protesters who sparked fury by halting traffic on a busy motorway in Rome.
Rush hour motorists were blockaded on the Grande Raccordo ringroad outside the Italian capital by Last Generation activists who unfurled large banners protesting fossil fuels.
The disruption led to angry scenes as drivers got out of their vehicles to remonstrate with the eco-zealots and plead with them to get out of their way.
Some took matters into their own hands, physically dragging protesters out of the way.
One man on a motorbike begged to be let through, loudly arguing: ‘I have to go, I’m a doctor.’
But a female activist refused to grant him permission to get through without seeing his medical identification and demanded he handed it over.
Italy’s ‘Ultima Generazione’ (Last Generation) climate activists block a motorway to highlight the need to combat the climate crisis, in Rome today
Furious drivers have resorted to dragging away a group of eco protesters who sparked fury by halting traffic on a busy motorway in Rome
The driver pulled away a protester on the ground in front of his car in his bid to clear the roads
Police officers intervene and start dragging away the protesters blocking the motorway outside Rome
Rush hour motorists were blockaded on the Grande Raccordo ringroad outside the Italian capital
Drivers got out of their vehicles to remonstrate with the eco-zealots and plead with them to get out of their way
Last Generation activists unfurled large banners protesting fossil fuels and called for an end to oil and gas
Some took matters into their own hands, physically dragging protesters out of the way
One man in a grey hoodie ordered the protesters to ‘move out of the f***ing way!’
He eventually brandished his ID card and the demonstrator allowed him to bypass the human barricade.
In another tense exchange, one angry driver shouted at a protester: ‘You have to move, move out of the f***ing way!’
When he started to physically drag the activist off the road, a woman intervened: ‘Stop! You will hurt him.’
Another man stepped in and confronted the demonstrators, saying: ‘This is not the way of protesting. Organise a proper protest, the motorway is not where you should protest. We have to go to work’
‘Otherwise, this will become poor against poor. People will get angry and they will beat you and this is not fair… You’re p***ing people off.’
Stopping traffic on busy roads has become a tactic used worldwide among climate protesters
Police eventually intervened and broke up the protest, dragging people in the blockade apart and allowing cars to drive on through
Police lifted the protesters away to help clear the roads after the major disruption this morning
The activist replied: ‘We’ve been outside Parliament several times but we didn’t get anything.
‘Do you think it’s easy protesting? I feel bad, you can’t imagine how bad I feel. It’s not easy.’
Police eventually intervened and broke up the protest, dragging people in the blockade apart and allowing cars to drive on through.
The protesters’ banners read ‘no gas’ and ‘no coal’ and they are calling for stronger government action on climate issue.
They are demanding a halt to the reopening of disused coal plants and an increase in solar and wind energy.
Stopping traffic on busy roads has become a tactic used worldwide among climate protesters.
Police confiscate the banners belonging to the Last Generation climate activist group
They are demanding a halt to the reopening of disused coal plants and an increase in solar and wind energy
A young protester performs the splits as she spreads herself across the busy road, while drivers remonstrate in the background
Today in the UK, activists forced police to close the Dartford Bridge by climbing up it have vowed to keep it shut for ‘at least 24 hours’.
Traffic was seen tailing back on the M25 for seven miles this morning after Just Stop Oil activists scaled the girders of the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge shortly before rush-hour.
In a video posted from on top of the bridge today, one of the protesters said he was ‘not willing to sit back and watch everything I love burn for the rest of my life’.
In the footage an emotional Morgan Trowland, a 39-year-old civil engineer, ranted against ‘the current fraudulent, charlatan excuse for a Government’, saying it was ‘accelerating that process granting more licences for oil and gas’.
‘It’s an absolute act of treason, it’s selling ourselves and our children into an uninhabitable earth and I believe it’s my duty to do anything in my power to stop it,’ he added.
