About 25 members of the campaign group Saving Iceland took part in protests by the Century Aluminum smelter at Grundartangi in Hvalfjördur, west Iceland, yesterday, disrupting the smelter’s operations for a short period.
Most of the protesters chained themselves together and created a human wall on the road leading to the smelter, blocking traffic. Five of them climbed a crane on the smelter area and had to be brought down with a cherry picker, Morgunbladid reports.
According to Snorri Páll Jónsson Úlfhildarson, a Saving Iceland activist, the purpose of the protests was to bring attention to the damage to the environment and the pollution caused by the operations of the Icelandic Alloys factory and the aluminum smelter on Grundartangi.
Theodór K. Thórdarson, senior police officer in Borgarnes, said the protests had been non-violent and that the protesters had only disturbed traffic for a short while, because an alternative route by the Icelandic Alloys factory was opened.
Click here to read more about Saving Iceland’s protests.
