Swedish police drag Greta Thunberg from climate protest blocking parliament entrance

Greta Thunberg was forcibly removed by the Swedish police for blocking the entrance to parliament for a second day along with a few dozen other climate activists.

Ms Thunberg, who was in a sit-down protest against “political inaction” over the spiralling climate crisis, was picked up by two police officers and dragged away from the parliament building.

The officers left her on the ground some 20m away from the door she had been obstructing, Reuters news agency reported.

This was the second day of the protest after Ms Thunberg and around 40 other climate activists staged a similar demonstration on Monday.

Activists held signs reading “Climate Justice Now” as they sat in front of at least two entrances to the 349-seat Riksdagen, including the main doorway.

Swedish lawmakers were forced to use other entrances to avoid the protesters, local media reported.

“The climate justice movement has, for decades, been repeating the same message over and over again, like a broken record, and we feel like we are not being heard,” Ms Thunberg told the Associated Press.

The activists left in the afternoon but reassembled at the gate again on Tuesday morning, prompting police action.

The 21-year-old climate activist started her campaign in front of the Swedish parliament in 2018, which later became a global youth movement with Ms Thunberg receiving a Nobel Prize in 2019.

This week’s protests came as the EU Environment Agency released its first-ever continent-wide assessment of the risks of the climate crisis, warning members states to prepare for its “catastrophic” impacts.

“Hundreds of thousands of people would die from heatwaves, and economic losses from coastal floods alone could exceed €1 trillion per year,” the report warned under a pessimistic projection of warming trends.

This is the latest protest where Ms Thunberg has been dragged away by the police, with demonstrations in London last year leading to a public order offence.

A British court acquitted her last month for obstructing the entrance to a major oil conference after the judge ruled that there wasn’t enough evidence to convict.