A SOUTHAMPTON bank has been shut down my activists as part of a national protest against climate change.

The Above Bar Street branch of Barclays in Southampton was rendered out of action by Greenpeace activists who disabled the doors, preventing staff from entering early this morning.

Greenpeace are protesting the bank's carbon footprint and have taken action at 95 sites in towns and cities across the UK.

At targeted branches, images of Barclays customers bearing slogans such as Stop Funding Fossil Fuels and Stop Funding the Climate Emergency were plastered on branch windows.

Pop-up exhibitions have blocked access to major branches of the bank in Belfast, Cardiff, Glasgow, London and Manchester.

The exhibitions displayed photographs of some of the worst climate emergency disasters in the four years since the Paris Climate agreement was signed.

Morten Thaysen, climate finance campaigner at Greenpeace UK said: "From floods in Southampton to bushfires across the globe and record heat in Antarctica, the impacts of this crisis are staring us in the face.

"We’ve shut down branches across the country to shine a spotlight on Barclays’ role in bankrolling this emergency."

 Barclays spokesperson said: “We recognise that climate change is one of the greatest challenges facing the world today, and are determined to do all we can to support the transition to a low carbon economy, while also ensuring that global energy needs continue to be met.

"Greenpeace has a view on these issues to which they are completely entitled, but we would ask that – in expressing that view – they stop short of behaviour which targets our customers, and our colleagues, going about their lives in communities around the country.”