Lothian and Borders police have arrested 12 campaigners during protests against the Royal Bank of Scotland’s tar sands funding.

Police arrested 12 climate campaigners during yesterday’s protests in Edinburgh against the Royal Bank of Scotland‘s funding of the oil and mining industries. One man was charged with assault.

Lothian and Borders police said the 12 were arrested at five protests during the day, including incidents at the RBS headquarters on the outskirts of Edinburgh and at four RBS and energy industry sites in the city.

The protests culminated in a physical confrontation between scores of activists and riot police inside the landscaped grounds of the RBS headquarter yesterday evening.

Protesters attempted to wheel a mock “siege engine” made from corrugated steel and timber down from the camp site across a bridge in the grounds. Others fired four “bombs” filled with molasses at the RBS building, while riot police grappled with protesters trying to reach the building.

There were no arrests at the site, but police said one man, 58, was arrested for assault during an incident at Gogarburn Bridge flyover nearby.

The force confirmed there were five arrests earlier in the day for breach of the peace at the headquarters of Forth Energy in Leith docks, where activists occupied the roof and building in protest at the firm’s plans for biomass plants at Scottish ports.

On Nicolson Street, where an RBS branch was twice occupied by protesters smeared in molasses, to signify oil, a 25-year-old man and two women aged 38 and 34 were arrested and later charged with breach of the peace.

The force said a 24-year-old woman was charged with vandalism at a bank branch at Hunter Square while two men aged 31 and 33 were charged with breach of the peace after an incident on the A8 Glasgow Road.

Read the full story courtesy of The Guardian.