Three people have been arrested after police had to use power tools to remove protesters who had locked themselves together blocking a city centre street.
The demonstration is the latest surrounding the COP26 UN climate summit in Glasgow.
Extinction Rebellion activists blocked St Vincent Street by locking themselves together inside a rubber dinghy on Tuesday afternoon outside the Santander building.
The doors and front of the bank’s premises were spray-painted with the words “blood money” and “protect Amazon”.
The COP26 Coalition said Santander had a track record of funding projects directly linked to large-scale deforestation around the world and the protest was in solidarity with the indigenous people most impacted.
There was a very large police presence with dozens of officers and several vehicles present.
Activists claimed they were unable to legally observe the action because of police blocking their view.
But the force said officers erected barriers around two protesters for safety reasons due to the cutting equipment used to separate them.
A Police Scotland spokesperson said: “Officers were in attendance at St Vincent Street where they engaged with protestors in order to facilitate peaceful protest.
“An element of the protest was causing disruption with individuals having attached themselves to a lock-on device. Two people have been arrested in connection with this and specialist officers have removed the individuals from the device. Another individual was arrested in connection with an alleged vandalism.
“In order to ensure the safety of the individuals, the wider public and officers dealing with the protestors, it was necessary to create a sterile area while this process was carried out.”
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