'ECO-warriors' who have crawled into tunnels under a busy Thurock road have turned on police and National Highways for allegedly putting their lives at risk by allowing traffic to continue to use the road.

Earlier this week protesters arrived at two fuel terminals in west Thurrock, the Navigator Terminal on Oliver Road and Inter Terminals UK's site at Askews Farm Lane.

At Askews Farm they climbed onto gantries and buildings, necessitating the deployment of special police teams to bring them down safely.

And at the Navigator, a number of campaigners have crawled into tunnels under the access road – which also serves a number of other industrial premises in the area.

Two days on, a number remain underground, refusing to come out. Inially police closed the roads, but yesterday made the decision with National Highways, after checking out the site, to reopen the roads to traffic.

That move has been condemned by the JustStopOil campaign group behind the protest.

In a statement the group says: "Essex police are endangering public safety by refusing to close a road that runs over one of the tunnels occupied by JustStopOil supporters, who are demanding that the UK government end new oil and gas projects in the UK.

"After consulting the Highways Agency yesterday, the police decided to partially reopen the road above a tunnel on St Clement's Way near the Navigator oil terminal, the largest in Britain.

"This means that large oil tankers and other HGVs are passing over the occupied tunnel, risking its collapse, threatening the life of the people below and endangering anyone using these roads.

Dr Larch Maxey, 50, a scientist who is occupying one of the tunnels in Thurrock said: "he police are obliged to undertake a proper risk assessment to consider public safety and it is clear that no such risk assessment has taken place.

"The Highways Agency have apparently advised the Police that it is safe to open the road, but they haven't done a proper investigation. I fear that not only our safety but that of the travelling public is at risk.

"The police are following the government's line and prioritising the flow of oil above the lives of every single person on earth. They should know that we will not give up easily. We will not stop until the government agrees to end new oil and gas projects in the UK. "

Another tunneller, Sam, 39 from Suffolk, also under St Clements Road, said: "I don't feel safe and I fear that the Police are dismissing my concerns for public safety. We have an ongoing situation where trucks weighing over 40 tonnes are driving directly over an occupied tunnel at a rate of over one truck per minute, this is directly putting lives at risk. I'm not going to be pressured into leaving the tunnel. I am here for the long haul.

"We face very dire consequences if we don't stop new oil and gas drilling. We've already seen 40C heat in the UK for the first time in recorded history and that put immense pressure on the emergency services. It's clear that they are under-resourced and now they are cutting corners. 

"This is on the government. They could end this disruption today and start to address the cost of living and the climate crisis by stopping new oil and gas."