100+ people arrested for planned coal-fired power station protest

More than 100 people have been arrested for allegedly planning a protest at a coal-fired power station.

Nottinghamshire Police have arrested 114 people over a power station protest.

Police officers who raided an independent school in Sneinton, Nottingham, said the protesters would have posed "a serious threat" to the safe running of Ratcliffe-On-Soar power station.

A spokesman for Nottinghamshire Police said "specialist equipment" recovered during the raid led them to believe the power station was the intended target.

He said: "Just after midnight tonight, Nottinghamshire Police arrested 114 men and women from across the UK on suspicion of conspiracy to commit aggravated trespass and criminal damage."

Nottingham City councillor David Mellen said the police raided the privately-run Iona School as the result of "an intelligence-led operation".

He said: "I don't know whether it was the school itself being used or the car park. Neighbours reported a lot of noise after midnight. It seems to have been used as a rendezvous for people from a wide area."

No one at the school was available for comment.

E.ON runs the power station at the centre of the alleged plot.

A spokeswoman for the company said: "We can confirm that Ratcliffe power station was the planned target of an organised protest during the early hours of this morning.

"While we understand that everyone has a right to protest peacefully and lawfully, this was clearly neither of those things so we will be assisting the police with their investigations into what could have been a very dangerous and irresponsible attempt to disrupt an operational power plant."