SIX Extinction Rebellion (XR) activists were arrested today after campaigners from the group launched a wave of actions across the City of London to demand insurance firms sever ties with fossil fuels.

An 80-year-old retired healthcare worker was among those arrested after activists targeted the offices of insurance brokers WTW, covering the premises with fly posters and chalk spray paint.

Activists deemed the firm “one of the most hypocritical insurers in the UK,” with analysts recently co-authoring a report warning that the climate crisis could lead to food shortages and social unrest in Britain.

It marked the second day of direct action in XR’s Insure Our Survival campaign, focusing on the impact of climate-driven floods spotlighted in Monday’s protests.

Hundreds marched through the City led by a wheelbarrow holding a giant potato symbolising the incoming flood-driven breakdown of Britain’s food and farming system.

Activists lined up to the potato with empty bowls, each receiving a single pea to highlight the food shortages looming ahead unless the fossil fuel industry is halted.

Meanwhile a van playing videos depicting insurance firm bosses as climate criminals toured around the area.

Activists also descended on the “Gherkin,” where the HQ of global reinsurance company SwissRe is based. 

Three activists in business suits entered the lobby and unfurled banners reading Insure Our Survival and Stop EACOP, referencing the East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline, which campaigners say would increase CO2 emissions by 379 million tonnes over its lifetime.

About 20 activists gathered in front of the entrance, greeting insurance workers with placards warning about the effects of floods tied to the fossil fuel projects insured by their employers.

Later in the day, children were due to visit insurance firms across the City dressed in ghost costumes symbolising the young lives being lost to climate crisis-driven famine.

Insure Our Survival spokesperson Steve Tooze said: “We’re making it clear to insurers that they have the power to stop us going hungry and having our homes flooded and made uninsurable.

“They can make it impossible for fossil fuel bosses to keep drilling and digging by pulling the plug on the insurance that covers their huge financial losses if things go wrong.

“Unless insurers meet our demand to stop insuring new oil and gas, we will keep targeting them with mass non-violent direct action to damage their reputations with the public and business community and hit their share price.”