Lone HS2 protester remains in tunnels under Euston as police arrest three activists
Single demonstrator still beneath central London station after 30 days
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Your support makes all the difference.A lone HS2 protester remains in a network of tunnels under central London after three people including the environmental activist known as Swampy exited the site.
The subterranean demonstration, which aims to disrupt the building of the multi-billion pound railway line, has been ongoing for the last month.
Eight campaigners have already left the tunnels, which were built in secret near Euston station, but one remains despite having been underground for 30 days, campaigners said.
On Thursday, Swampy, 48, whose real name is Dan Hooper, was arrested as he emerged from the site in Euston Square Gardens along with two others – 18-year-old Blue Sandford, daughter of Scottish landowner Roc Sandford, and an unnamed 22-year-old.
The HS2 Rebellion group tweeted that all three were “well and in high spirits to see daylight again”.
Their departure leaves “one out of the nine tunnellers still underground”, the group added.
“Peaceful disobedience is the only thing that’s working, but it’s not enough. 2050 is too late for net-zero and projects like HS2 are only accelerating collapse,” Ms Sandford said.
A Metropolitan Police spokesman said they had been arrested on suspicion of aggravated trespass.
A statement said: “They were taken to hospital as a precaution and subsequently into custody at a London police station.
“Officers remain at the HS2 site.”
Larch Maxey, 48, who was was removed from the site by bailiffs on Monday, denied aggravated trespass at Highbury Corner Magistrates' Court.
The geography lecturer was charged with criminal damage and two counts of obstructing or disrupting a person engaged in lawful activity. He denied all three charges.
Mr Maxey became the fifth campaigner to leave the tunnels, after a 16-year-old boy left last Wednesday following a 22-day stint underground.
The network of tunnels, discovered on 26 January, are one of a number of protest sites along the HS2 route.
Activists have set up camp in the treetops of Poors Piece Wood in Buckinghamshire in an effort to prevent the area being cleared for the new route, which will initially link London and Crewe via Birmingham.
Opponents of the railway have claimed that aside from the environmental impact of building the line, tickets will be significantly more expensive than for conventional trains to help pay for the railway.
But Mark Thurston, chief executive of HS2 Ltd, said the ticketing structure will ensure trains can be used by “all working people”.
The level of HS2 fares and whether trains will have first class compartments has not been decided.