Environmental activists held in the Euston tunnel for the second night, but evacuation officers said the tunnel was close to gas and water pipelines and that activists were risking their own lives.
The tunnelers described how they built what is believed to be one of the largest tunnel networks occupied by protesters in one of the busiest parts of London, undetected.
The network has two main tunnels that go in different directions from the descending shaft and is said to be at least 30 meters long.
The tunnels were built over a period of several months after an environmental activist camp was set up in Euston Square Gardens in August last year. They joined a community of homeless people on the street who were already camped there.
Euston Station is one of the busiest in London, serving trains, buses and the underground. It is located on Euston Road, a major artery through central London.
The Metropolitan Police, the British Transport Police, Network Rail, Camden Council and Transport for London have denied that it was their responsibility to monitor the site for digging the tunnel. HS2 said it took possession of the site on Wednesday.
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One of the activists, Ben Hartley, told The Guardian how the covert operation was carried out. “It is not a new idea for protesters to dig tunnels,” he said. “I’m pretty sure different organizations must have had the idea that something was going on.”
He said the tunnel network, which he described as an “extended maze of protest”, was considered one of the largest of its kind.
Hartley said the most dangerous time for activists in a tunnel was when bailiffs began digging. He believes that at least two members of the High Court Enforcement, the group carrying out the evacuation, are very prepared to deal with this type of action.
He said of the digging operation: “It’s a bit like the Great Escape.” He said the main structure in which the activists in the camp lived in the months before this week’s evacuation was a long, multi-room living space with a lockable front door. “If someone came in that we didn’t like the look of, we locked the front door,” he said.
When the excavations began under this living space, the activists piled up the earth they removed on the floor of their house. “We squatted to the end as we walked from room to room,” Hartley said. “In some places, the ground was piled up 3 feet high. I cut the wood to hold the tunnel inside so that it could not be seen. ”
He said part of the purpose of the protest was to raise awareness of the loss of a precious park in the middle of a heavily built part of the capital. “It’s a real shame that this park is being lost to build a temporary taxi rank,” he said. “We are intelligent and hardworking people and we want to realize that this is part of the fight for the future of our species.”
Howard Rees, a spokesman for tree protectors in Euston Square Gardens, said a gathering of citizens was urgently needed to address the climate emergency. “We need sensitive British people to take the reins and guide us.”
The activists in the tunnel released images of unpleasant exchanges with the escape crew, whom they accuse of depriving them of sleep non-stop with their strength and vigor. Larice Maxey, one of the occupants, said that this is a form of torture for the inhabitants of the tunnel.
The High Court Enforcement said: “The national evacuation team has been hired to legally remove Euston Garden activists. In their attempts to delay the removal, the illegal occupants occupied a tunnel dug raw on the ground.
“We are aware from our risk assessment and from their statements in various media today that they have previously experienced a collapse and the ingress of water into their tunnel. It appears that illegal activists were in danger of a new collapse of the tunnel and possibly of intercepting nearby gas and water pipes, leading to the risk of suffocation, flooding and drowning.
“To mitigate the dangers, we use specialized air control compressors to circulate the air and equipment for monitoring air conditions. The activists did not make any provision in this regard. We have engineers available on site to assess whether the tunnel is running close to gas, water or other utilities pipelines and cables. ”