One of the Extinction Rebellion activists who clambered on top of a train and brought the London Underground to a standstill while sparking fury from commuters is a Buddhist teacher
- Mark Ovland scaled a train at Canning Town and unfurled an XR banner
- He and other XR protesters sought to cripple London’s Underground network
- 36-year-old Ovland is a former Hindu monk and a trainee Buddhist teacher
- He is a ‘full-time protester’ and has been arrested and released several times
- Politicians, unions, commuters and XR spokespeople condemned the action
Mark Ovland spent a year as a Hindu monk and works to bring mindfulness teaching into prisons
One of the Extinction Rebellion activists who climbed on top of a tube train this morning has been identified as a 36-year-old Buddhist.
Mark Ovland gave up his full-time Buddhist teacher training studies earlier this year to join XR as a ‘full time protestor’.
He has already been arrested and released several times in the course of XR’s fortnight long campaign to cause chaos across the capital.
This morning Ovland was among those XR protesters who – in a coordinated three-pronged assault at different stations – scaled tube carriages and glued themselves to train doors in a bid to bring the Underground to its knees.
The action saw at least one protester dragged to the platform and roughed up by commuyers and drew howls of outrage from Londoners, politicians, union leaders, police, and even official XR spokespeople.
The Telegraph reported that Ovland has already been arrested and released ‘several times’ this week.
He was among the protestors who sprayed fake blood all over the Treasury on October 3.
The Metropolitan Police have not yet confirmed how many times Ovland has been arrested and released.
In interviews Ovland describes himself as a full-time Extinction Rebellion protestor who gave up his Buddhist studies to devote himself to climate change action.
His actions this morning sparked a firey backlash.
Ovland, left, clambered on top of a train at Canning Town this morning to unfurl his banner
The group’s leaders have called off a planned protest at Gatwick airport ‘in light of’ the response to the Tube disruption and a spokesman said the group would ‘take stock’ before disrupting the Underground any further.
British Transport Police slammed the group for putting people at risk.
Assistant Chief Constable Sean O’Callaghan said: ‘Despite our countless warnings, we are frustrated that Extinction Rebellion put people at risk to obstruct services on London’s rail network. Those who obstructed services are in custody and will be dealt with robustly.’
Local MP Jim Fitzpatrick furiously tweeted: ”So what point is Extinction Rebellion making shutting down east London’s public transport system, preventing ordinary people from getting to work, school, hospital?’
He was led away by police on OCtober 3 after XR sprayed the Treasury with fake blood
Downing Street heavily criticised protesters. ‘What we saw this morning didn’t have anything to do with peaceful protest,’ said the Prime Minister’s spokeswoman.
London Mayor Sadiq Khan, who until today has cautiously backed XR and their right to protest, said he ‘strongly condemned’ the action calling the Tube protests ‘illegal… extremely dangerous, counterproductive and … causing unacceptable disruption to Londoners who use public transport to get to work.’
A spokesman for the Rail, Maritime and Transport union said: ‘RMT condemns any activity that compromises staff and passenger safety on London Underground.’
A poll on the Extinction Rebellion Telegram chat showed 86 per cent of members were against action targeting the London Underground.
Just four per cent approved of the action, while seven per cent approved if they could be sure trains wouldn’t get blocked underground.