LONDON, Aug 5: Police said on Tuesday they had seized a stash of knives and makeshift weapons in searches close to a camp in Kent where climate change protesters have gathered.

Officers said they had found an adapted knife, a replica throwing star, a knife block with knives and a large chain with a padlock in a wooded area near the Camp for Climate Action in hunts carried out on Monday night.

About 600 activists have assembled at the camp to protest about a proposed new coal-fired power station in Kingsnorth, the first in Britain for nearly 30 years.

They have dismissed the police find as being part of a “smear campaign”.—Reuters