Protester arrested in ‘Attenborough incident’

A CLIMATE change protester has been arrested after reportedly approaching Sir David Attenborough at a Michelin-star restaurant in Dorset.

Police said Emma Smart, 45, was arrested on Thursday evening after allegedly causing a disturbance and refusing to comply with officers after they asked her to leave Catch At The Old Fish Market in Weymouth. Animal Rebellion, the protest group behind Smart, said she approached the table where Sir David was dining in an attempt to deliver a letter to him, and shared images of her being dragged away by police at 8.45pm.

Smart, an ecologist from Weymouth, said she wanted a five-minute conversation with Sir David about the need to address climate change.

According to Animal Rebellion, a group calling for a plant-based food system and a mass re-wilding programme, Smart targeted his visit to the Catch restaurant because of its expensive seafood menu. She said in a statement: “The Catch is a symbol of excess and inequality in today’s world, Weymouth has average wages amongst the lowest in the UK and is at huge risk of sea level rises.

“Yet this restaurant still continues business as usual amongst the worst cost-of-living crisis many will ever experience.

“We don’t need another documentary series showing us that we are losing, some 150 species going extinct globally every single day. What we need is action.”

She is due in court in December.