A Just Stop Oil protester tossed orange paint over a snooker table during a World Championship game, causing the match to be cancelled this evening.
Two eco activists invaded the arena at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield shortly after play began, with a man interrupting the match between Robert Milkins and Joe Perry by jumping on the table where he released a packet of orange dye.
A female protester was stopped from attacking the match between Mark Allen and Fan Zhengyi on table two by the quick-thinking response of referee Olivier Marteel.
Play was immediately suspended at the event as cleaners brought vacuum cleaners into the arena and master of ceremonies Rob Walker was among those helping to sweep up the mess.
Snooker fans jeered and booed the male activist as he interrupted play. One irritated fan shouted: ‘Get him off!’
Just Stop Oil protester Edred Whittingham, a 25-year-old Politics, Philosophy and Economics student at Exeter University, tossed orange paint over a snooker table during the World Championship before being dragged away today
The eco-zealot threw orange powder paint on the table, interrupting play this evening
Former world champion Stephen Hendry, on commentary duties for the BBC, said: ‘I have never seen that before at a snooker event. It’s a first.
‘It is scary. Wow! You just hope the cloth can be recovered from that. It caught us all by surprise and then this happens.
‘For me, straight away as a snooker player I am thinking: ‘Is the table recoverable?’ We don’t know what that is on the table.’
The two protesters were former museum worker Margaret Reid, 52, a former museum professional from Kendal, Cumbria, and Edred Whittingham, a 25-year-old Politics, Philosophy and Economics student at Exeter University.
Ms Reid said: ‘I did not take this action lightly, but I cannot remain a passive spectator while our government knowingly pushes us down a path to destruction. They are giving handouts of £236million-per-week of our money, to the most profitable industry on earth, during a cost of living crisis. I can no longer justify watching from the side lines.’
‘I am angry and heartbroken that I have found myself in a position where taking this sort of disruptive action is the only way to get heard.’
Mr Whittingham, 25, said: ‘I don’t want to be disrupting something that people enjoy, but we’re facing an extremely grave situation.
‘Europe is experiencing its worst drought in 500 years. We’re seeing mass crop failure right now. We’re facing mass starvation, billions of refugees and civilisational collapse if this continues.
‘We can’t continue to sit back and act as if everything’s OK.’
Just Stop Oil said both were arrested after the protest today.
Mr Whittingham was previously arrested on September 14, last year, after taking part in another Just Stop Oil protest at Kingsbury Oil Terminal in Warwickshire.
Just Stop Oil issued a statement which read: ‘At around 7.20pm, two Just Stop Oil supporters disrupted the World Snooker Championship at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield, interrupting play.
‘The pair proceeded to cover the tables in orange powder paint before being removed by security and arrested.
‘They are demanding that the Government immediately stop all new UK fossil fuel projects and are calling on UK sporting institutions to step into civil resistance against the Government’s genocidal policies.’
World Snooker Tour officials confirmed that the match between Allen and Zhengyi was set to resume after a delay of approximately 45 minutes.
Security guards rushed to the table and grabbed the eco-protester by his left arm before removing him from the table
Security dragged him from the table and he was reportedly later arrested, according to Just Stop Oil
Orange powder on the table after a Just Stop Oil protester jumped on the table during the match between Robert Milkins against Joe Perry
The balls and one end of the table was covered in th orange paint that the protester threw
He was quickly taken away by the venue’s security and play at the tournament resumed
The affected table was covered and will be re-clothed overnight.
However, the match between Robert Milkins and Joe Perry was cancelled this evening.
The World Snooker Tour said the match would ‘not resume tonight’ and the pair ‘will play their first session on Tuesday evening from 7pm’.
After the intrusion, Just Stop Oil told their followers ‘oil and gas will snooker us’.
However, while the eco group said the ‘puns were an added benefit’, it said the attack ‘has nothing to do with snooker’.
The group told MailOnline: ‘Millions of people watch the snooker. Millions of people have now seen our message.
‘This is no time to be a spectator, fossil fuels are killing millions and pushing us closer to the collapse of human civilisation.
The match between Robert Milkins and Joe Perry was cancelled after the protest this evening
‘We face crop failure, drought and starvation within a few short decades. To allow new oil and gas is the greatest criminal act in human history.
‘It’s time for everyone to join us in civil resistance or face the loss of everything we know and love. Which side are you on?’
In a separate statement the group said: ‘[The protesters] are demanding that the Government immediately stop all new UK fossil fuel projects and are calling on UK sporting institutions to step into in civil resistance against the Government’s genocidal policies.’
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