The Metropolitan Police arrested six members of the anti-Israel group Palestine Action on Sunday for allegedly plotting to disrupt and damage the London Stock Exchange.
The six are accused of planning to cause “damage and ‘locking on’ in an effort to prevent the building opening for trading,” according to police.
The six unnamed suspects, who remain in custody, range in age from 23 to 31. Three are women.
“These are significant arrests. We believe this group was ready to carry out a disruptive and damaging stunt which could have had serious implications had it been carried out successfully,” said Detective Superintendent Sian Thomas.
Thomas thanked the London Daily Express for tipping officers off about the plot on Friday. That information “was instrumental in helping us intervene successfully,” the superintendent said.
Also on Sunday, the Metropolitan Police said it was aware of video footage of a speaker at a Saturday protest in central London, “the commentary surrounding them and the subsequent statements issued by the speaker.”
“They are assessing the matter and as part of that assessment will be seeking to speak to the individual concerned,” it added. We will provide a further update in due course.”
The post was an apparent reference to the anti-Israel activist Mohammed el-Kurd, who said during the rally that “we must normalize massacres as a status quo” and “We must de-Zionise because Zionism is a death cult. Zionism is indefensible.” He later sought to backtrack on the former remark.
