HS2 protesters have doused the walls of the Department for Transport in fake blood and glued themselves to the building as the construction of the high-speed railway began.
Activists daubed words “Smash HS2” across the walls of the office building in Westminster on Friday, while two campaigners glued their hands to the glass entrance door.
The demonstration came as the Prime Minister officially marked the formal start of construction of HS2.
Extinction Rebellion (XR) campaigners joined together with the HS2 Rebellion group and tree protectors for the protest.
It forms part of XR's two weeks of civil disobedience, calling on the UK Government to take action against climate change.
The activists said the construction of the High Speed 2 rail project is “ecocide”.
They chanted "HS2 has blood on their hands. HS2 is Ecocide" as four people glued themselves to the floor before the DfT entrance.
“We know we are heading into a recession following Covid-19," said Tracey Mallaghan, 44, one of the protesters who glued her hands onto the Dft glass entrance door.
“The allocation of over £100 billion to this vanity project to get rich Londoners to airports quicker is greedy, selfish and immoral.
“When you consider the damage being done to our country, it's nothing less than reckless greed and must be stopped. We need laws in place to protect us from ecocide.
“Until then we have no process but civil disobedience to air our concerns, to try to protect our lands and children's futures from those who think of nothing but their own wealth and power.”
Jim Knaggs, 32 from HS2 Rebellion, who also glued his hands to the entrance door said he was taking action against the construction of the railway because it involves workers “destroying Jones Hill Woods”.
“Being a veteran I never saw myself becoming an activist,” he said. “But after finding out about the ecocide and how they were destroying Jones Hill Woods, my favourite authors' woods, I looked a little more and realised that no one had voted for this £106 billion railway.
“In the forces we had certain values and standards. Anyone who’s served and they will tell you integrity is well, integral.
“Well, nothing has changed, I still have integrity and there is an imminent threat to life through the crime of ecocide constantly being committed by HS2.”
The demonstration came as more protesters gathered for a “Stop Ecocide, Stop HS2” rally in Parliament Square.
Gail Bradbrook, co-founder of Extinction Rebellion, said: “This is an aviation shuttle service between London and Birmingham, favouring rich folks who are based around the capital and at a time when we need to protect nature, drastically lower carbon emissions and when our pattern of travel in the era of pandemic has changed for good.
“Why won’t the Government just admit the folly of this ridiculous project, cancel it and reinvest the money in a green economy and improving current rail and bus services for the whole of the UK?”
Despite it running tens of billions of pounds over budget and several years behind schedule, Mr Johnson gave the green light for the high-speed railway in February 2020.
The project was given a revised budget and schedule as part of his decision. Two months later, ministers gave the go ahead for it to enter the construction phase.
Mr Johnson said the railway will create thousands of jobs and create vital links between urban areas.
"HS2 is at the heart of our plans to build back better – and with construction now formally under way, it’s set to create around 22,000 new jobs," Mr Johnson said.
"As the spine of our country’s transport network, the project will be vital in boosting connectivity between our towns and cities."
Met Police has been approached for comment on the protests.