Arla Hatfield dairy depot targeted by protesters

Footage from Animal Rebellion showed lorry tyres being drilled at the Hatfield depot

Activists have damaged lorries at a protest at an Arla dairy processing and distribution centre, police said.

Hertfordshire Police said officers were called to the depot at Mosquito Way, Hatfield, Hertfordshire, at about 10:10 BST and 17 people were arrested.

Police remained at the scene, but there were no longer any protesters, it added.

An Arla spokeswoman said: "We're extremely disappointed that protesters have caused criminal damage."

Animal Rebellion, which campaigns for a plant-based future, said the Hatfield site was the seventh milk processing and distribution centre it had disrupted in five days of protests.

It said its supporters had drilled the tyres of about 50 lorries at the depot.

Supt Sue Jameson said officers arrived on the scene within a few minutes of being called and "were presented with a number of protesters causing criminal damage to the transport vehicles on site".

"A number of trailers were damaged to the point that they were not driveable," she said.

"There is protesting and then there is showing complete disregard for the law and committing a criminal offence, they are two entirely different things."

She said 17 people had been arrested on suspicion of both aggravated trespass and causing criminal damage.

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