Extinction Rebellion is blocking four of London’s busiest bridges for the holiday

Climate change protesters blocked four of London’s busiest bridges on the first day of the Easter bank holiday.

Hundreds of Extinction Rebellion activists were on Waterloo, Blackfriars, Lambeth and Westminster bridges, calling for an end to new fossil fuel investment.

Activists said they would continue to protest until their demands were “met”.

Demonstrators playing bongos and waving banners reading “end fossil fuels now” and “love in action” were photographed braving traffic queues driven by double-decker buses.

The Metropolitan Police said they were trying to control the disturbance and officers were seen trying to engage those involved.

The force said: “We are aware of a number of demonstrations taking place today.

“We are seeing areas of protest causing delays and disruption in central London.

“A police operation is in place and officers are at the scene working to manage the impact.”

One of the protesters, 50-year-old Clive, speaking on Westminster Bridge, told the PA news agency: “We don’t want to disrupt the lives of ordinary people, but what we’ve found is that in order to get the attention of the Government, In order to impress upon people what was going on, we were forced to go this way.

“We apologize to anyone if we caused any disruption. I hope everyone will appreciate if it gets to a position where we can no longer grow crops, the disruption that will come from that will be massively worse.”

A student called Froggy, 21, said: “We are still here, this is not forgotten, it was not a flash in the pan and we will keep coming back until our demands are met.”