COP26: Police Scotland officers assaulted and sprayed with paint at Extinction Rebellion protest

Police Scotland have made five arrests at an Extinction Rebellion protest in Glasgow City Centre on Wednesday afternoon, two of which came after a number of officers were sprayed with paint.

Police have confirmed this evening that five arrests were made in total at the protest, which happened as leaders at COP26 discussed the financial system.

Assistant Chief Constable Gary Ritchie said: "Police Scotland is a rights-based organisation that puts our values of integrity, fairness, respect and a commitment to upholding human rights at the heart of everything we do.

Police arrest an Extinction Rebellion protester outside SSE Renewables in Glasgow during the Cop26 summit. Photo credit: Jane Barlow/PA Wire

"This means that we will protect the rights of people who wish to peacefully protest or counter-protest at COP26, balanced against the rights of the wider community. We will provide a proportionate policing response to any protest and violence will not be tolerated.

"Assaults on officers, who put their safety at risk every day to keep the public safe and have adopted a facilitative and rights-based approach to protest, is totally unacceptable”.

Led by an upbeat drumbeat, hundreds of people marched from the steps outside the Royal Concert Hall at the top of Buchanan Street in Glasgow around the city and into George Square.

Extinction Rebellion marchers were initially held at a police cordon on Sauchiehall Street.

The column of protesters turned back on themselves and went along West Nile Street, before moving down through other parts of the city centre.

Climate change activists from all over the world dressed in green marched to confront the threat of greenwashing – a form of marketing spin in which green PR and green marketing are deceptively used to persuade the public that an organisation's products, aims and policies are environmentally friendly.

Speaking to the crowd from the steps at the top of Buchanan Street, Rob Callender, a 31-year-old activist from London, said: “They all sell us solutions in COP26 separated from histories – technologies that don’t exist, greenwash.”

"These lies kill. Blah blah blah kills.”

Protestors appeared relatively peaceful and friendly during the day, despite rumours of potential vandalism being a part of the protest.

Many City of London officers were seen lined down Buchanan Street in a sign of the outside forces brought in to help police COP26 protests.

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