Thirty-one held after action at Coventry and Rugeley Amazon sites

Action took place in Coventry on Friday

Thirty-one people have been arrested after activists took action at two Amazon sites in the West Midlands.

Extinction Rebellion targeted 13 UK sites, including in Coventry and Rugeley, with climate change activists blocking warehouses on Black Friday.

The group said it was to draw attention to alleged exploitation of Amazon workers, but the company stated it took its "responsibilities very seriously".

Fourteen have been held after action in Coventry and seventeen in Rugeley.

Sites were targeted in Dunfermline, Fife; Doncaster; Darlington; Gateshead; Altrincham, Greater Manchester; Peterborough; East Midlands Airport, Leicestershire; Dartford, Kent; Bristol; Tilbury, Essex; and at Ridgmont, close to junction 13 of the M1 in Bedfordshire.

West Midlands Police said a number of activists blocked access to an Amazon depot in Coventry and people had been taken into custody on suspicion of offences relating to aggravated trespass.

Staffordshire Police stated 12 men and five women were arrested on suspicion of aggravated trespass, after a protest outside the distribution centre in Rugeley.

Police were at the scene of a blockade in Rugeley, Staffordshire

An Extinction Rebellion spokesman has said action was "intended to draw attention to Amazon's exploitative and environmentally destructive business practices, disregard for workers' rights in the name of company profits, as well as the wastefulness of Black Friday".

An Amazon spokesman has said it took its responsibilities "very seriously", including its commitment to be "net zero carbon by 2040 - 10 years ahead of the Paris Agreement".

The spokesman added they also included "providing excellent pay and benefits in a safe and modern work environment, and supporting the tens of thousands of British small businesses who sell on our store".