Activists end protest at airport

Climate change protesters blocked access to the departure lounge

A group of environmental activists who blocked an entrance to a departure lounge at Manchester International Airport have ended their protest.

The group took action inside a public area in Terminal Three and a screen was later set up in front of them.

An emergency exit next to the campaigners was used to transfer passengers into the departure lounge.

No queues were created by the incident. The protesters walked out of the airport at 1000 BST.

Greater Manchester Police took no action against the group, thought to number about seven.

One of them, Vanessa Hall, is a Green Party member of Manchester City Council and said she was "disgusted" with the authority's actions in relation to the airport.

'End flights'

"Manchester City Council, that owns this airport along with the other local councils, should be ashamed," she said.

"We have this whole Manchester Green City, aspiring to be a green city, but it is nonsense when you're expanding an airport."

Ms Hall called for an end to internal flights within the UK.

"Climate change already kills 160,000 people every year. That is only going to get worse unless we do something about it."

Ms Hall apologised for the disruption caused but claimed they had no choice but to act.

"It is really, really important that we take action on climate change. We cannot leave it up to the Government."