Children were used as a human blockade as protesters tried to prevent police and bailiffs from clearing an Olympics site.
Four campaigners were arrested as officials, acting on a High Court order, moved in to evict the protest camp at Leyton Marshes where Occupy London activists and residents have been demonstrating over the building of a temporary basketball training facility.
Simon Carleton, 29, Daniel Ashman, 27, Anita Olivacce, 25, and Connor Murray, 24, were appearing at Thames magistrates’ court today on public order offences.
They were arrested at the site yesterday amid chaotic scenes which saw demonstrators, including a child who looked as young as six, leaping under a lorry and refusing to move.
Two women were pictured with the boy under the large truck, while others broke into the work site belonging to the Olympic Delivery Authority and chained themselves to surrounding fences in a bid to avoid eviction.
Campaigners have now moved their tents to a patch of grass at the entrance to the park a few yards away and insisted there was “no court order” that could evict them.
They said the campaign would not stop and are calling for a mass “day of action” to stop the building work, which began again today.
A flyer posted online says: “Spread the word, let’s get hundreds if not thousands of people down.
“We intend to force all construction work to stop permanently. We will do this by sheer weight of numbers.
“Tell everyone on Twitter and Facebook to get down to Leyton Marshes this Saturday the 14th of April from 11am onwards. Save Leyton Marsh.”
Read more at the London Evening Standard.
