Driver punches Just Stop Oil activist to the ground and kicks his head

A driver brutally attacked a Just Stop Oil activist after he was involved in an accident with a pregnant woman in his car.

Protester Daniel Knorr, 21, was punched in the back of his head, pushed to the ground and then kicked in the head.

The protestors blocked two lanes while marching down Cromwell Road, in South Kensington, west London, this morning.

Traffic was still flowing slowly on the other side of the road, but a silver Mercedes and a van crashed into each other.

Graphic footage shows a woman getting out of the passenger side of the Mercedes and shouting: ‘This is what you’ve caused, I’m pregnant. You f**king idiots.’

The man who was driving the Mercedes follows her out of the car and punches Daniel, who was infamously carried off the pitch at Lords by Jonny Bairstow last month.

The driver calls Daniel a ‘f**king idiot’, tells him to ‘stop recording you c**t’ and pushes him to the ground.

He then kicks Daniel, who is lying on the floor, trying to protect his head with his arms.

Several of Daniel’s fellow protestors rush over to help him and a bystander steps in to push the attacker back.

The student from Oxford said: ‘I haven’t said anything to the police and I don’t plan to, but I’m afraid that the police might go after this man.

‘I feel no ill sentiment or ill will against him. It’s a difficult situation for anyone to be in and it’s bound to create frustration.

‘I can tell from the fact that he’d just been in a car accident, he was very stressed. 

‘Really, if the police spent more time going after the people at the top who got us in this mess- the people in government and at the top of these fossil fuel companies who are destroying the lives of future generations, as well as the media moguls who create this toxic media space, to keep us divided; instead of going after people like this man, I’d be much happier.

‘Then marching in the road wouldn’t even be necessary.’

The Metropolitan Police posted on Twitter: ‘Officers were on scene responding to 9 JSO #protesters walking slowly in Kensington Gore at 08.03hrs.

‘They issued a Section 12 condition immediately to move off the carriageway, which was complied with.’

Section 12 of the Public Order Act allows senior police officers to impose restrictions on protests that, they feel, may lead to ‘serious public disorder’ on highways.

This morning has seen around 160 activists from 24 groups causing disruption in London – in Victoria, Vauxhall, Charing Cross, Marylebone, Holborn, Bow, and Westminster.

The group’s recent ‘escalation of resistance’ is to stop oil and gas extraction in Britain.

Yesterday, a man was filmed jumping out of a Range Rover and trying to drag protestors off of Marylebone Road by Westminster.

Footage shows the man grabbing onto the campaigners’ vests and tugging at their arms before yanking one off towards the pavement.

‘Are you trying to wind me up?’ the man can be heard shouting before stepping back out from the passenger seat to waggle his finger at another protestor.

‘I’m going to tell you one last time,’ he says, before pushing them to the side and spinning another person around by the arm.

Some 21 Just Stop Oil supporters have been arrested ‘for breach of Section 12 conditions to move off the carriageway from various locations of protest’.

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