Protesters disrupt flights at London City Airport

All flights at London’s city airport were disrupted after nine protesters from the Black Lives Matter U.K. (B.L.M.U.K.) movement gained access to the runway and chained themselves together. The protesters said that the move aimed at highlighting the environmental impact of air travel on the lives of black people locally and globally.

The met police made seven arrests on charges of aggravated trespass, being unlawfully airside and breaching London City Airport bylaws, reports the BBC. Two of the protesters still remained locked together at the runway as the authorities tried to negotiate.

The group issued a statement, which accused the U.K. and other European countries of blocking “cheaper, easier and safer avenues,” as a result of which more than 3,000 migrants have died or gone missing in the Mediterranean Sea, writes The Guardian.

B.L.M.U.K., which is an offshoot of the international movement that began in the U.S. four years ago, called on others to join a demonstration on Tuesday over a deportation flight to Jamaica later this month. The group slammed the U.K. for creating a “racist climate crisis,” saying that 28 percent of black people in Britain are more likely to be exposed to air pollution.