Greenpeace’s United Kingdom leader and five other activists reportedly were arrested Thursday after tossing hundreds of liters of ‘blood-red dye’ into a pond at the U.S. embassy in London in a protest against the war in Gaza.
The environmental group said the action was to ‘highlight the death and devastation caused in Gaza as a direct result of the US’ continued sale of weapons to Israel.’
‘Twelve activists tipped the non-toxic, biodegradable dye from containers emblazoned with the words ‘Stop Arming Israel’ into the large pond located in front of the embassy building in Nine Elms, south-west London,’ Greenpeace said in a statement. ‘The containers were delivered to the Embassy on bicycles with trailers disguised as delivery bikes.’
Greenpeace later said Will McCallum, the co-executive director of Greenpeace UK, was one of six people taken into custody.
He was charged with suspicion of conspiracy to cause criminal damage, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, according to the organization. The others reportedly received similar charges.
‘At 07:30hrs on Thursday, 10 April, officers on duty at the US Embassy in Nine Elms became aware of a group of Greenpeace protesters putting red dye into the pond at the side of the building. The group made off, but officers responded quickly and carried out a search of the area,’ a Metropolitan Police spokesperson told Fox News Digital. ‘Six people have so far been arrested nearby on suspicion of criminal damage and conspiracy to cause criminal damage.
‘The pond is accessible via a public footpath. There was no breach or attempted breach of the secure perimeter of the site,’ the spokesperson added.
The U.S. State Department did not immediately respond Thursday to a request for comment from Fox News Digital.
Footage released by Greenpeace UK purportedly showed the activists dumping the dye into the pond at the American embassy Thursday.
‘We’ve turned the embassy pond blood-red because U.S. weapons continue to fuel an indiscriminate war that’s seen bombs dropped on schools and hospitals, entire neighborhoods blasted to rubble, and tens of thousands of Palestinian lives obliterated,’ Areeba Hamid, co-executive director at Greenpeace UK, said in a statement.
‘The ceasefire Trump claimed credit for has collapsed and full-scale war is back. If Trump has any real interest in stopping the war, he should listen to the majority of Americans and stop arming Israel now,’ she added. ‘And the UK government should do the same.’