GREATER Manchester Police found time in the aftermath of the weekend’s far-right riots to make “pre-emptive” arrests of four peaceful Just Stop Oil activists near Manchester airport.

They were taken into custody in the early hours of this morning as towns and cities across the north still smouldered from days of rioting, looting and attacks on police and on hotels housing terrified refugees.

Just Stop Oil activists are targeting airports for peaceful protests as part of an international campaign involving 21 climate groups in 12 countries.

They are demanding that governments establish a fossil fuel treaty to end the extraction and burning of oil, gas and coal by 2030.

Recent Just Stop Oil airport actions have included single non-violent protesters displaying placards stating “Oil kills” while supporters filmed the event.

Courts have recently imposed draconian prison sentences of up to four years for such protests.

Ella Ward, 21, an environmental science student from Birmingham, was one of the four arrested.

She said: “I know I may be sent to prison and I know I could face many years inside.

“This fact terrifies me, but it doesn’t alarm me as much as the impending societal collapse and the loss of everything we know and love, which is what we are facing if we don’t take immediate and meaningful action against this crisis. 

“Continuing to extract and burn fossil fuels in the middle of a climate emergency is a violent act against my generation and all future generations.”

Greater Manchester Police said they had arrested three women aged 21, 30 and 53 and a man aged 23 “on suspicion of conspiring to cause a public nuisance.”