Oscar-winning actor Emma Thompson has avoided arrest after joining climate change protests in central London.
Dame Emma, 60, appeared at a Extinction Rebellion event at the cross-section of Oxford Street and Regent Street in the capital’s shopping district.
The actor, who has won two Academy Awards and is famed for roles in films such as Sense and Sensibility, climbed aboard a pink boat placed in the road by organisers and addressed the crowd.
Dame Emma, who received a gong for services to the arts last year, said young people had been “seriously failed” by politicians on the issue of climate change.
“We are here in this little island of sanity and it makes me so happy to be able to join you all and to add my voice to the young people here who have inspired a whole new movement,” she told a crowd of more than 100 people.
As police moved in, Dame Emma shrugged when asked if she was willing to be arrested but later apologised as she left the protest a short time before officers began detaining activists.
One woman was carried out the cordons by four police officers while a man was led away by two more.
Dame Emma was earlier forced to defend taking a long-haul flight from Los Angeles to London this week.
A representative said she needed to take the 5,400-mile flight home to London after working in Hollywood.
The home secretary, Sajid Javid, had told police to use the “full force of the law” to curb the protests, which have been ongoing since Monday.
Meanwhile, members of Extinction Rebellion’s youth wing failed to block cars at Heathrow Airport and opted instead for a road-side protest.
Extinction Rebellion is demanding all governments urgently address climate change.
“Governments prioritise the short term interests of the economic elites, so to get their attention, we have to disrupt the economy. They have left us with no other option,” the group wrote on its website.