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50 people arrested in power plant demonstration

Fifty people have been arrested during an environmental protest outside the Kingsnorth power station in Kent.

Around 1,500 protestors gathered at the Camp for Climate Action site, near the plant, this morning and began an assault on the power station in an attempt to shut it down.

Camp for Climate Action has been taking place all week at Kingsnorth, the site of planned new coal power stations.

Throughout the day protesters approached the site from a number of different directions, including on a flotilla of rafts crossing the River Medway, a course of action strongly criticised by the local coastguard.

Colin Ingram, from the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, earlier warned that anyone falling into the river could get hypothermia in under an hour.

As a result, four people were arrested for trying to launch a boat this morning and reports claim 123 more were rescued from the river.

In total, Kent police said 50 were arrested throughout the day as the protestors continued their siege of the power plant.

Energy company E.ON said they have been ready for today's demonstration for a number of months and up to 1,400 police officers had been called in.

At one point about 20 people were said to have breached the site's perimeter fence but were unable to achieve their objective of shutting the power plant down.