Just Stop Oil protesters disrupt World Snooker Championship

One man jumped on the table and emptied a packet of orange powder

Activists affiliated with the movement invaded the arena shortly after a match between Robert Milkins and Joe Perry got underway.

One jumped on the table and emptied a packet of orange powder.

He was wearing a white Just Stop Oil t-shirt, although questions have been raised over why snooker was targetted as a sport.

It comes after animal rights protesters disrupted the Grand National at Aintree this weekend by climbing the fence and breaking onto the race track.

One trainer blamed the protestors for the death of his horse after it fell at a hurdle, saying: “They haven’t a bloody clue what they’re doing. He just hasn’t taken off at the first fence; he’s got so bloody hyper because of the carry on."

In Sheffield, play was suspended as cleaners brought vacuum cleaners into the arena and the event host, Rob Walker, was among those helping to clean up the mess.

On Twitter, Just Stop Oil posted of the two protesters: “They are demanding that the Government immediately stop all new UK fossil fuel projects and are calling on UK sporting institutions to step into in civil resistance against the Government’s genocidal policies.”

In the BBC studio, the former world champion Stephen Hendry said: “I have never seen that before at a snooker event. It’s a first.

“It is scary. Wow! You just hope the cloth can be recovered from that. It caught us all by surprise and then this happens.

“For me, straight away as a snooker player I am thinking: ‘Is the table recoverable?’ We don’t know what that is on the table.”

“Attention seeking knows no bounds these days,” said the pundit and former player Alan McManus on Eurosport’s live coverage. “That’s pretty extreme, but it’s just a very unfortunate turn of events.”

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