FOUR “insurers of the apocalypse” hit the streets of London carrying briefcases warning of impending floods, famine and extinction today.

The stunt marked the third day of Extinction Rebellion’s protests in the capital’s financial district, targeting 52 insurance firms to demand that they cut ties with fossil fuel organisations driving climate breakdown.

In the morning, 10 XR activists dressed in business suits sauntered into the lobby of AIG Talbot, unfurling banners calling on the transnational, which also has offices in New York and Singapore, to stop insuring climate criminals. 

Other activists played “climate-collapse Jenga” with a giant model of the game carrying words such as “apathy” and “fake facts” to illustrate how continuing to insure fossil fuels will drive climate breakdown.

Outside, protesters staged a “soft” blockade, handing leaflets to staff asking them to press their bosses to pull the plug on insuring the deadly expansion of oil, gas and coal exploration and production.

Insure Our Survival spokesman Steve Tooze said that today’s protests focused “on the ultimate effect of flooding from climate crisis-driven extreme weather: social collapse, unrest and rioting as hungry, desperate people begin to panic.

“One of the world’s most respected climate research bodies, the Potsdam Institute, warns that will happen unless the fossil fuel criminals being enabled by the insurance industry are stopped from digging and drilling more of their deadly products.

“We hope the insurers are hearing us loud and clear: you have the power to stop the fossil fuel industry in its tracks, and until you use that power you will face an escalating campaign of protest and action that will wreck your reputation and damage your share price.”