Six arrested over plot to ‘bring London Stock Exchange to standstill’

Like I just said, lack of robust policing means that the protests are well out of hand. 

Detectives launched an emergency operation after being passed details of how activists were intending to launch a co-ordinated plan to prevent the building opening for trading.

If successfully executed this would have thrown global financial markets into turmoil.

An undercover Express reporter infiltrated the group and a dossier from a two month probe was passed to police on Friday revealing how the alleged Stock Exchange attack was set to kick-start a week of action by Palestine Action fanatics.

In the early hours of Sunday Met officers in conjunction with Merseyside Police arrested a man aged 31 in Liverpool on suspicion of conspiracy to cause criminal damage.

A further five people, all believed to be part of the same plot, were arrested throughout the day for the same offence. A women aged 29 and a man aged 23 were arrested in London, whilst two women, aged 28 and 26, were arrested in Liverpool along with a 27-year-old man in Brighton.

All six remain in custody.

Monday’s planned assault on the Stock Exchange where activists hoped to lock themselves together at the front entrance was hatched at clandestine meetings.

The plan was for two activists, armed with fire extinguishers filled with red paint, to climb on top of two revolving doors close to each other at the main entrance, place a ladder over both their heads and then chain their necks to it with bike locks. Fellow protestors would then lock themselves together in front of the main and back entrances, while fake bank notes, painted red to represent blood, being symbolically fired from “money guns”.

“We just need to shut it down for the whole working day.”

This (activists would place their arms inside metal tubes before locking themselves together and blocking the doors)  will slow the police down as they will be wary of hastily removing them in case the protesters have something like “broken glass” or “barbed wire” inside the tubes.

Describing the damage they are hoping the protest will cause, the organiser added: “There’s the great chance that you can literally just shut down the London Stock Exchange.”

Palestine Action say their aim is “direct action” to shut down and disrupt multinational arms dealers who supply Israel with weapons. The intended week of action, which was also planned to hit a target in Manchester, is designed to cause chaos for British companies doing business with the Israeli Defence Force.

Detective Superintendent Sian Thomas thanked the Express for the information that led to the arrests.

“Mindful of the suggestion that this was one part of a planned week of action, we are in contact with the City of London Police as well as other forces across the UK to ensure that appropriate resources are in place to deal with any disruption in the coming days.”