To use this site, please disable the ad blocking feature and reload the page.
This website uses cookies to collect information about your visit for purposes such as showing you personalized ads and content, and analyzing our website traffic. By clicking “Accept all,” you will allow the use of these cookies.
Users accessing this site from EEA countries and UK are unable to view this site without your consent. We apologize for any inconvenience caused.
AP In this photo provided by Just Stop Oil on Friday, May 10, 2024, two activist Judy Bruce, a retired biology teacher and Reverend Sue Parfitt, foreground as they target the protective enclosure around the historic Magna Carta document with a hammer at the British Library, in London.
AP
11:26 JST, May 11, 2024
LONDON (AP) — Two environmental activists attacked a glass case containing an original copy of the Magna Carta at the British Library on Friday, causing minor damage to the reinforced box but leaving the historic document unscathed.
The pair of protesters from Just Stop Oil, a group that has caused widespread disruption in Britain in its campaign to end to the world’s reliance on fossil fuels, pounded on the case with a hammer and chisel.
The Rev. Sue Parfitt, 82, and Judy Bruce, 85, a retired biology teacher, released a statement saying that they targeted the document to highlight the dangers of climate change.
The Magna Carta is rightly revered, being of great importance to our history, to our freedoms and to our laws,” Parfitt said. But there will be no freedom, no lawfulness, no rights, if we allow climate breakdown to become the catastrophe that is now threatened.”
London’s Metropolitan Police said that two people were arrested.
The library’s security team intervened to prevent further damage to the case surrounding the Magna Carta, which is considered one of the founding documents of Western democracy.
The Treasures Gallery is temporarily closed until further notice, the library said.
