Oblivious police drive straight past 'Blade Runners' cutting down Ulez camera

12 June 2024, 16:16 | Updated: 12 June 2024, 16:19

This is the moment oblivious police officers drove right past 'Blade Runners' cutting down a Ulez camera in London.

Footage posted online shows two people - one holding the camera and one cutting down the camera with a power tool - on a well lit pavement in London.

Moments later the camera is turned to see a police car is filmed driving past on the road no more than 2 metres away.

The police do not appear to stop or notice the 'Blade Runners' in the video.

The cameras film vehicles as they enter Ulez areas and automatically issue fines if the car does not meet the environmental requirements for entry.

The 'Blade Runners' are an activist group that vandalise, take down and steal Ulez cameras across the capital.

Last year one member said the group was made up of more than 100 people and admitted that he had stolen 34 Ulez cameras.

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It comes after a six-year-old girl was injured when a Ulez camera, positioned on top of a set of traffic lights, was pulled to the ground in southeast London in January.

The Ulez camera was pulled down at the junction of Old Priory Avenue and Court Road in Orpington, at around 6.30am on January 18.

It came just hours after five different sets of traffic lights were cut down near a similar location and a month after a Ulez camera exploded on Willersley Avenue, Sidcup, south-east London at around 6.45pm on December 6.

Two men, aged 60 and 61, were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to cause an explosion likely to endanger life or property.

No one was injured during the explosion but several cars and a property were damaged.

London's mayor Sadiq Khan has described Ulez as essential for reducing air pollution in the city.

But it has become controversial as the Conservatives try to turn some green initiatives into electoral issues after their success in the Uxbridge and South Ruislip by-election, which was effectively turned into a referendum on Ulez.