DEVIZES businessman Casey Collins was today caught up in a Black Lives Matter protest which grounded flights at London City Airport.

Mr Collins said customers were unaware of the protest until after 8am, and assumed the delays were related to IT glitches at Heathrow and Gatwick.

The freelance management consultant was supposed to be on a 7.35am flight to Luxembourg.

He said: "We didn't know why we weren't being called to board - it just said the next information would be at 8am and that people were being encouraged to queue up at the info desk.

"But the problem was that there were only two or three staff there and the queue was about 150 yards long, so it was impossible.

"Pretty soon they realised they would have to do a queue-walk to inform everyone. People were behaving themselves, they know it was not the airport's fault, but for a time it was a bit chaotic."

He said passengers were offered refunds for cancelled flights, while delayed passengers were also given refreshment vouchers.

The final two activists taking part in the airport protest were arrested at around 11.25am, Scotland Yard said, nearly six hours after the nine-strong group occupied the single runway.

The protesters were being held on suspicion of aggravated trespass, being unlawfully air-side and breaching airport by-laws, police said.

An airport spokesman this morning said: "We are preparing the airfield to resume operations as soon as possible."

The demonstration resulted in all flights in and out of the airport being cancelled, delayed or diverted.

Several emergency service vehicles were parked on the runway as attempts were made to clear the protesters.

A man in black, who had attached himself to the top of a wooden structure, was surrounded by police officers and a set of aircraft steps was wheeled up to him in an apparent bid to get him down.

Police boats could also be seen circling the dock surrounding the runway.

Having attached a helmet to the man, police removed him from the top of the structure and on to the plane steps.

After sitting briefly on the platform with a rope around him, he was taken down.

It is the latest demonstration involving the anti-racism activists, who brought traffic to a standstill outside Heathrow Airport - and carried out similar protests in cities around the country - in a co-ordinated day of action last month.

The campaigners, whose international movement was set up following the killing of black teenager Trayvon Martin in Florida four years ago, said Tuesday's action was taken "in order to highlight the UK's environmental impact on the lives of black people locally and globally".

Black Lives Matter UK spokesman Jacob Oti, 22, said campaigners were "pleased" with the attention the protest achieved.

He said: "I think this has highlighted important issues which people need to think about."

"People need to understand that the effects of climate change are most felt by the people least responsible for them."