Watch: Climate change protest using fake blood goes horribly wrong

Climate-change protestors in London have (fake) blood on their hands after a group of activists who planned to spray fake blood from a hose connected to a decommissioned fire engine lost control of it and soaked the British Treasury building, the street in front of it and a bystander with the red liquid.

Rebels have just sprayed the treasury with fake blood outside the #Treasury in London.

With them is 83 Phil Kingston of @CClimateAction #stopfundingclimatedeath#ExtinctionRebelion pic.twitter.com/g6KZdxOjbW

— Extinction Rebellion UK 🕊️ (@XRebellionUK) October 3, 2019

Police initially arrested four people on the scene after an estimated 1,800 liters, or around 475 gallons, of the organic liquid died red with beetroot sprayed wildly across the face of the building and street. On Twitter, the Metropolitan Police later posted an update to say a total of eight people were arrested on suspicion of criminal damage and the fire engine seized.

The Guardian reports the activists are with the group Extinction Rebellion, which describes itself as an international movement that uses non-violent acts of civil disobedience “in an attempt to halt mass extinction and minimise the risk of social collapse” from climate change. It’s organizing marches to be held around the world on Monday. Automobiles are a major contributor to climate change because of the greenhouse gasses they emit into the atmosphere.

#UPDATE | A total of eight people have been arrested on suspicion of criminal damage; five men aged between 34 and 83, and three women aged between 34 and 60.

The fire engine was seized and removed.

— Metropolitan Police (@metpoliceuk) October 3, 2019

The activists were reportedly protesting the United Kingdom’s investments in companies that it says contribute heavily to fossil-fuel emissions. They dressed in funeral attire and were perched atop an out-of-commission fire engine which bore a banner reading, “Stop Funding Climate Death.”

“Decisions being made in this building are going towards a non-future,” one of the activists, Mark Ovland, was quoted as saying. “We’re funding billions in fossil fuel subsidies and carbon-intensive projects, and we just need a rethink, otherwise we’re in serious danger.”

While a recent House of Commons report was critical of the British government’s credit agency for investing in fossil fuel projects in low- and middle-income nations, the Treasury defended itself to the Guardian.

“The UK is a world leader on climate change — having reduced its emissions by 42% between 1990 and 2017, while growing the economy by more than two-thirds,” it said in a statement.