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April 6 (UPI) -- Swedish activist Greta Thunberg was arrested Saturday during a climate demonstration blocking a highway in the Hague, the Netherlands, photos showed. Thunberg was among a group of demonstrators with Extinction Rebellion Netherlands who ran onto the A12 highway in The Hague and were arrested almost immediately by the police, according to the Dutch newspaper De Telegraf.
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Photos showed Thunberg being dragged off the roadway as she and fellow protesters at the group's 37th blockade of the busy thoroughfare since 2022 called for new international actions against fossil subsidies.
Police announced at 2:15 p.m. local time that they intended to end the action and that those who did not comply would be arrested. While some of the activists then left voluntarily, others were forcibly removed and and put onto buses.
Thunberg was among those who were loaded onto a detention bus, the broadcaster Der Haag FM reported.
"The arrests have begun," Extinction Rebellion leaders wrote in a social media post. "No matter how many times that happens, we keep coming back. Our demand is reasonable and just: stop all fossil subsidies immediately."
The group said it and supporters in Belgium were staging blockades together on Saturday "to show Europe that the fossil industry and our governments are driving the global climate and ecological crisis with fossil subsidies."
"Companies such as Shell, Tata Steel and KLM receive huge discounts on the use of oil, gas and coal in the Netherlands," the activists said in a pre-demonstration statement. "In total, this amounts to between 39.7 and 46.4 billion euros per year in the Netherlands alone.
"Globally, the IMF reserves an amount of $7 trillion for 2022. In this way, the use of energy sources whose emissions drive the climate and ecological crisis is supported and stimulated," they asserted.
Extinction Rebellion on Saturday also condemned what they called "the disproportionate force frequently used by the police against our peaceful demonstrators."
