Police again remove Greta Thunberg from blocking Swedish parliament

Greta Thunberg is removed by police officers as she demonstrates outside the Swedish parliament building together with a group of climate activists in Stockholm, Sweden, March 13, 2024. Fredrik Sandberg/TT News Agency/via REUTERS

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - Swedish police on Wednesday again forcibly removed Greta Thunberg and other climate activists who were blocking the entrance to parliament, driving them away in a police van for the second time this week.

Thunberg and dozens of other environmental campaigners on Monday began blocking the main entrances to Sweden's parliament in a sit-down protest against the effects of climate change and what they said was political inaction.

Police did not intervene at first, but removed the demonstrators when the protest resumed on Tuesday morning.

Thunberg, 21, became the face of young climate activists as her weekly protests, starting in 2018, in front of the Swedish parliament quickly grew into a global youth movement with large rallies across continents.

Stockholm police have said that although activists had the right to demonstrate outside the national assembly, they were removed for blocking entrances.

(Reporting by Ilze Filks, writing by Terje Solsvik, editing by Stine Jacobsen and Anna Ringstrom)