Extinction Rebellion activists protested at banks in Essex in an attempt to persuade them not to invest in fossil fuels.

The environmental action group strung mock crime scene tape across the doors at closed banks in Colchester and Clacton, including Barclays, Lloyds and HSBC.

The tape described the banks as ‘Climate Crime Scenes’.

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Rosie Dodds, a local resident and Extinction Rebellion activist, said: “We need banks to stop funding fossil fuels and fast. It’s totally irresponsible to keep investing in oil, coal and gas when the planet is overheating.

“We have to leave them in the ground, cut energy use and invest in renewables. Anyone can help encourage this by moving their money to more ethical banks.”

A statement from the group said: “Investment in new fossil fuel extraction, infrastructure, and power flies in the face of the clear and urgent need for a rapid decline in the use of fossil fuels.

“The companies, and the banks that finance them, have a responsibility to stop building new coal mines and power plants, and stop opening new oil and gas fields.

“Banks need to drop their support for dirty energy, investing instead in renewable energy, insulation of buildings and other ways to reduce carbon emissions to prevent imminent planetary collapse from man-made climate change.”

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Tina Bourne, a Colchester borough councillor and group spokeswoman for the council’s crime and disorder committee, was supportive of the protest.

She said: “They’ve chosen a bank holiday to do it so the disruption to customers is non-existent. And I presume that tape has gone now. So the bank will open as normal tomorrow morning. But what they have done is managed very cleverly, to engage the imagination of the people that they are trying to highlight their campaign for.

“No one has been harmed. No one has been stopped from accessing a public building.

“Unfortunately, you can’t say that about fossil fuels. People are harmed. The planet is harmed, and companies make an enormous amount of money from causing harm.

“So what a good campaign, well done to them.”