London stock exchange chaos: According to London’s Metropolitan Police, six people were detained on Sunday, January 14, in relation to a suspected plot to interfere with the London Stock Exchange’s (LSE) Monday opening for business.
Detectives launched a probe after the Daily Express tabloid supplied material to the Metropolitan Police on Friday. On Sunday, there were arrests in Brighton, Liverpool, and London.
The Palestine Action Organisation planned to attack the exchange on Monday morning, damaging damage and stopping it from “opening for trading,” according to a police statement.
Since 1986, the London Stock Exchange has operated entirely online for stock trading, lacking a physical trading floor. The UK markets were open for business as usual on Monday.
An activist organisation called Palestine Action is established in Britain and works to sabotage the activities of arms companies that provide the Israeli government with weaponry.
The group said that the LSE “actively” boasted about its support for Israeli businesses and raised “billions of pounds for the apartheid state of Israel” in a post on X on Sunday.
Five of the six activists who were detained have reportedly been released, while one has been charged with a crime and is expected to appear in court shortly, according to a Palestine Action post on X.
“These are significant arrests,” said Detective Superintendent Sian Thomas of the Metropolitan Police. We think that this group was ready to pull off a damaging and disruptive prank that, if pulled off, might have had far-reaching effects.
“I appreciate the Express’s openness to share the data they gathered throughout their inquiry. It was crucial to our ability to successfully intervene. We had little time to act because we only received the material on Friday afternoon,” he continued.
