Green MEPs arrested in Brussels after nuclear protest at military airbase

A trio of Green Party MEPs have been arrested for breaking into an airbase in Belgium as part of a protest over the stockpiling of US nuclear bombs.

The three politicians, including the UK's Molly Scott Cato, scaled the perimeter fence and then unfurled a banner which read "Europe free of nuclear weapons".

Ms Scott Cato said: "Our action is intended to challenge EU countries to remove US nuclear weapons from European soil.

"Each B61 bomb is 23 times more powerful than the bomb that devastated Hiroshima.

"These apocalyptic weapons should find no home in Europe.

"Nuclear weapons are obsolete in an era of asymmetric warfare and cyber warfare and have no place in a European defence policy for the 21st century."

After this she expressed her "demand" that Europe's nuclear nations immediately sign up to the landmark global Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons then begin the process of decommissioning their nuclear arsenals.

"Britain and France have ignored their obligations under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons for far too long," she added.

The protest has been backed by Green party co-leader Sian Berry.

She said: "We stand in full solidarity with our brilliant MEP Molly and her Green colleagues who have been arrested for taking a stand against nuclear weapons.

"These bombs have the potential to kill millions of people.

"They make us less safe, are obsolete in modern warfare and are a colossal waste of money.

"It is only right all US nuclear weapons are removed from Europe."

The action came after US President Donald Trump's announcement that he was withdrawing from the intermediate-range nuclear forces (INF) treaty earlier this month, a pact which was signed in the cold war era.