TEN Greenpeace activists who dangled from the Forth Road Bridge, preventing the passage of a tanker of fracked gas, have been arrested.

The campaigners lowered themselves on ropes from the 150ft-high deck of the bridge in eastern Scotland to 80 feet above the sea on Friday: enough to block the Grangemouth-bound Ineos vessel for 24 hours.

The demonstration came to a close on Saturday morning as the 10 lowered themselves onto waiting vessels to be taken ashore to Port Edgar in South Queensferry, where Police Scotland arrested them on suspicion of culpable and reckless conduct.

Greenpeace UK’s Amy Cameron said: “We’ve achieved what we set out to. We’ve drawn global attention to the company’s bottomless appetite for plastic production, false solutions and profit for its billionaire boss Jim Ratcliffe.

“Ineos are cutting jobs at Grangemouth while trying to open a massive new plastics plant in Belgium, leaving Scottish workers high and dry.

“If Jim Ratcliffe really cared about skilled jobs in Scotland he’d invest his billions in supporting his workers to transition into the green industries of the future instead of throwing money at Formula 1 racing teams and football clubs.”