Delays at Heathrow airport after protesters storm runway

Passengers have been warned to expect delays at Heathrow airport after climate change protesters gained access to the runway this morning.

Flights were diverted and the northern runway was shut for almost three hours as campaigners shackled themselves to fences and each other in protest against the airport's extension plans.

The campaign group Plane Stupid said that a dozen protesters managed to get onto the runway shortly after 3am by cutting through the airport's perimeter fence, Sky news reports. By 10am, the Metropolitan Police confirmed that all the protesters had been removed. Nine were arrested, and one, dressed as a polar bear, had to be removed from a makeshift structure by a cherry picker.

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"Both runways are open although there will still be delays," the airport said in a statement. "We are sorry for the disruption to passengers." It is advising customers to check with their airline before travelling to the airport.

In a video posted online, a police officers is seen speaking to several activists chained together. "As a consequence of you being here, you are causing severe disruption and it will be in the millions of pounds because it will take us a while to remove you," he said.Afzal Ashraf, from the defence and security think tank the Royal United Services Institute, told the BBC that the protesters' actions raised serious security concerns."If they did manage to get to a runway before being apprehended then there is a bit of an issue," he said.

"If a terrorist group came up to the fence it would take a few minutes to cut through."

The protest comes after a highly-anticipated report recommended that a third runway be built at Heathrow instead of expanding Gatwick Airport. But campaigners argue that another runway would increase carbon emissions at a time when they need to cut in an effort to curb the effects of climate change. One of the activists involved in the protest said: "We want to say sorry to anyone whose day we've ruined, and we're not saying that everybody who wants to fly is a bad person.

"It's those who fly frequently and unnecessarily who are driving the need for expansion and we cannot keep ignoring the terrifying consequences of flying like there's no tomorrow."