The London 2012 canoe slalom champion was carried from Waterloo Bridge by four officers at around 8.30pm on Sunday as he shouted about the 'ecological crisis'
OLYMPIC gold medallist Etienne Stott was one of the eco-warriors arrested on Waterloo Bridge last night as cops cleared the Extinction Rebellion protesters.
The London 2012 canoe slalom champion was carried from the bridge by four officers at around 8.30pm as he shouted of the "ecological crisis".
On Twitter at around 10.50pm, the Nottingham branch of XR confirmed his arrest and said they were awaiting his release.
Earlier in the day he and fellow environmentalist Chris Packham, 57, gave speeches from the top of a bus stop.
Stott, 39, later told The Sun: “I know it causes a huge amount of disruption but the problem is this disruption pales into insignificance when you’re considering literally the breakdown of civilisation.
“And I didn’t make that up. David Attenborough said that.”
Protests calling for the Government to declare a climate emergency are set to enter a second week after nearly 1,000 people were arrested during the first seven days.
Activists have stopped traffic in a series of demonstrations across London since Monday with actions including fixing a boat at the junction of Oxford Street and Regent Street.
They also occupied Waterloo Bridge and disrupted the Docklands Light Railway by climbing on a train.
A total of 963 people had been arrested as of 7pm on Sunday while 40 have been charged in connection with the XR protests, the Met Police said.
A spokesman said there would be no escalation of activity on Bank Holiday Monday, but warned that the disruption could get "much worse" if politicians were not open to their negotiation requests.
The group will no longer hold a picnic on the Westway by Edgware Road Underground station, which would have stopped traffic on the busy A-road on the last day of the long Easter weekend.
Instead, at Marble Arch, the only police-sanctioned protest space, activists will meet to "vision what's going to happen in the coming week", an Extinction Rebellion member said, as she introduced Swedish activist Greta Thunberg to the stage.
The 16-year-old was met with cheers as she walked on stage and told a crowd of hundreds that humanity was at a crossroads.
Earlier on Sunday, in what the group later said was an internal memo intended to garner feedback from members, Farhana Yamin, the group's political circle co-ordinator, said the group would shift tactics to "focus on political demands".
She added: "Being able to 'pause' a rebellion shows that we are organised and a long-term political force to be reckoned with."
The proposal suggests negotiating with the mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, and Metropolitan Police, to agree that they be allowed to continue their protests at one site in London.
Members would commit to not disrupting other areas in exchange for Mr Khan speeding up the implementation of the Declaration of Climate and Ecological Emergency, and considering setting up a London Citizens' Assembly.
They will also set up a political taskforce to take forward public negotiations with the Government, warning that they are prepared to scale up action depending on how much progress is made.
Neither the Met nor the Mayor's Office would say whether they were considering the proposals.
