Police arrested 16 Just Stop Oil protesters after the iconic Stonehenge was attacked with orange paint.
Dramatic footage released by the climate group shows a series of police raids as the green fanatics are now campaigning to raise money from their supporters.
It comes after Hackney police last night arrested several key organisers of the group on an alleged soup night who had allegedly been plotting to cause chaos for thousands of holidaymakers this summer by disrupting airports across the UK.
In a video released by JSO, a police officer can be heard saying: “You are under arrest on suspicion of participating in a conspiracy to interfere with key national infrastructure” and goes on to mention the “plot to cause serious disruption at UK airports.” ”.
Police can then be seen flipping through the pages of protesters’ books and cupboards, saying that “people can hide things in all sorts of places.”
Footage shows police arriving at one of the Just Stop Oil protesters’ doors to arrest them.
Officers can be seen browsing through books and cupboards, explaining: “People can hide things in all sorts of places.”
One of the protesters in the video who was arrested tells his partner ‘it’s okay honey, see you later’
Just Stop Oil protesters spray Stonehenge with orange paint in latest stunt
The climate group said police raids resulted in “at least 16 arrests” and that their “only crime” was being Just Stop Oil protesters.
As well as spray-painting Stonehenge, the group made headlines after spray-painting two private planes at Stansted Airport.
One of these planes was thought to belong to Taylor Swift, however, it was actually revealed that the target had been the plane of an American bank.
One of the planes attacked was an 18-seat Gulfstream G650, which would be worth around £60m when new, according to documents we have seen.
At Stonehenge, Rajan Naidu, 73, and Niamh Lynch, 21, ran towards the stones and attacked them as the public tried to intervene.
Video footage showed two people wearing white T-shirts with the slogan Just Stop Oil approaching the stone circle with canisters and spraying orange powder paint.
The group claimed it would wash away in the rain, but archaeologists are concerned about possible damage to the 5,000-year-old global icon and monument.
Tim Daw, a local farmer and historic property manager who used to volunteer at the site, carried out an experiment by mixing corn flour and food coloring and then applying it to a small piece of sarsen, which is the same stone as Stonehenge.
On the piece of sarsen you can see a series of posterior dots, which are the lichen.
He then washed the bottom half of the stone before gently rubbing it and noticed that the cornmeal was in the pores of the stone and therefore “displacing the lichen.”
Mr Daw told the programme he was “concerned” by the lichen on the monument, and said of yesterday’s attack: “I was shocked and saddened. I couldn’t believe it.
Jennifer Kowalski and Cole Macdonald stand next to a private jet they spray painted at Stansted Airport’s VIP airfield.
Several stones were covered in the substance before the protesters stopped and sat cross-legged on the grass.
‘Stonehenge is so precious, not only to me but to many people. Carrying out this act, which I believe has gone against your cause, seems pointless and harmful.’
Rishi Sunak and Sir Keir Starmer were united in condemning Just Stop Oil after the incident.
The Prime Minister described it as a “disgraceful act of vandalism”, while the Labour leader called the group “pathetic”.
Mr Daw described it on BBC Breakfast as a “very, very strange plant organism that grows on rocks” and which “takes hundreds of years to grow because there is no nutrition”.
But according to a source, the stunt at Stansted was just a “prelude” to plans to disrupt even more airports in the coming months.
Speaking to The Times, the source said: “This is just another way of acting in the stages of life in which we exist because we are not political.”
‘Private jets are obviously emissions conscious and most people would agree they should stop.
‘It is a wake-up call to the government that we need big radical changes.
“If this incoming administration doesn’t put us on a war footing, then we won’t have anywhere to fly.”
MailOnline has contacted the Metropolitan Police.
