Protesters wave 'royal blood bath' signs near Buckingham Palace; smear paint on statue of Queen Victoria

A large number of extinction rebellion protesters gathered near Buckingham Palace on Thursday, and managed to vandalise a statue of Queen Victoria before the police was able to contain the situation.

Activist group Animal Rebellion, "an animal and climate justice movement with the stated aim of compelling government action towards a plant-based food system," is affiliated to XR, whose two-week campaign of "civil disobedience" has been causing chaos in London. Several young activists from Animal Rebellion decided to take their protests to Queen Elizabeth II's primary residence, claiming that the royals are guilty of eco-crimes for allowing animals to be hunted on the Crown Estate, reports Mail Online.

Spokesman Harley McDonald-Eckersall said, "The Crown Estate is the biggest landowner in the UK and they choose to use this land for animal agriculture and hunting, which not only decimate our environment but cause the deaths of millions of lives every year. It's time for a new system based on justice and compassion and the royal family should be leading the way."

The group turned up on the spot waving "a royal blood bath" signs, and defaced the Queen Victoria Memorial located just yards from the palace. They smeared the statue of the former Queen, and dyed the water in the fountain red, before police officers sloshed through the water to grab them.

Met Police tweeted about the chaos, "A number of activists have vandalised the Victoria Memorial water feature outside Buckingham Palace. We are on scene and arrests have been made. The suspects are being taken to custody."

Some social media users questioned the competence of the police itself and accused them of treating the demonstrators "all lovey dovey" and "like a public art exhibition."

Around 200 people have been arrested in four days of Extinction Rebellion events in London. Nickie Aiken, Conservative MP for Cities of London and Westminster, also hit back at the environmental group claiming that the activists had themselves left 120 tons of rubbish on the streets during their last takeover of the capital in 2019. Aiken told the Telegraph, "The disruption to local people and businesses (due to the protests) is immeasurable. That (trash on the roads) added £50,000 to their costs. This is local people's council tax."

In its defence, the group's spokesman argued that the £50,000 figure was a "service" cost, meaning the total cost of council services that were temporarily redeployed during the two-week protests in October. "There was no additional money spent by the council and no additional cost to the taxpayer. The 120 tons of rubbish collected took place over a two-week period. To put that figure into comparison, during London's New Year celebrations 2016-17, Westminster cleared up 85 tons of rubbish from just one night," the spokesperson explained, adding that they always ask rebels to clean up after themselves.

The protests against the royal family come just days after Prince Charles called on business leaders to help amid the exponentially increasing climate change or the planet is "done for." The heir apparent, who belongs to the former Greece royal family through his father's side, mentioned the recent wildfire in the country which destroyed the family's once-summer residence Tatoi Palace, naming it one of the recent examples of the environmental damage.