London's Heathrow Airport was forced to cancel 13 flights today after activists cut through a perimeter fence and chained themselves together on a runway to protest against the possible expansion of Britain's biggest airport.
A group of at least 12 activists said it took only minutes to get through the apparently unguarded wire fence at around 03.30am allowing them access to the northern runway.
The protest was eventually ended by police more than seven hours later, the airport said.
The activists, from a group called 'Plane Stupid' which opposes the growth of aviation, said a £23bn plan to build a third runway at Heathrow would increase carbon emissions and would trigger further protests.
"These individuals have since been removed by police," Heathrow Airport said in a statement.
"Both runways were operational throughout, although there have been some delays and a few cancellations."
Pictures posted by activists on Twitter showed them chained together, some smiling under blankets at dawn and lying beside the black scars left by the tyres of jets.
Later pictures showed some being led away by British police.
Although frustrating for business and summer holiday travellers, the 13 cancellations are a small part of the average 1,290 daily landings and departures at Heathrow.
The size of the runway meant most planes were able to take off during the protest. Police said they had made nine arrests.
Earlier this month a long-awaited report recommended that a new runway should be built at Heathrow rather than Gatwick.
After three years of investigation, the Airports Commission said Heathrow was best placed to provide "urgently required" capacity, but environmentalists warned that building a new runway there will make it harder to reduce air pollution and climate change emissions.
Ella Gilbert, one of the activists on the runway, said: "Building more runways goes against everything we're being told by scientists and experts on climate change.
"This would massively increase carbon emissions exactly when we need to massively reduce them, that's why we're here.
"We want to say sorry to anyone whose day we've ruined, and we're not saying that everybody who wants to fly is a bad person..
Second activist taken off now #NoThirdRunway third being cut pic.twitter.com/TyhqxTXZkw
— Plane Stupid (@planestupid) July 13, 2015
"It's those who fly frequently and unnecessarily who are driving the need for expansion, and we cannot keep ignoring the terrifying consequences of flying like there's no tomorrow," Ms Gilbert said.
"No ifs, no buts, no third runway. And we mean it."
The Metropolitan Police confirmed that some of the demonstrators had chained themselves together using a so-called tripod.
A spokesman said: "At approximately 3.45am officers were alerted to a number of protesters who had made their way airside at Heathrow Airport.
"A small number of these protesters are believed to have chained themselves to a 'tripod'.
"Officers are in attendance."
