Barclays Wrexham Forced To Close After Protestor Occupation

The Wrexham town centre branch of Barclays was closed this afternoon after protestors occupied the bank.

Two weekends ago we reported (video and pics here) on a gathering of protestors against the Israeli attacks on Gaza. At the time it was promised that the protestors would attend Queens Square every Saturday until the situation was resolved.

This afternoon it appears some protestors have occupied and proceeded with a ‘die-in’ the town centre branch of Barclays bank to protest at to alleged connections to Israel and related investments. This branch has been subject to similar protests previously (such as this time in 2012) however we are unaware that any previous protest meant business being disrupted and police attending.

The below picture was tweeted to us by Mike Corris who said he saw protestors on Queens Square earlier in the day, and then had seen them at the Barclays branch, : “There were people in the square outside Nero cafe holding flags and drawing chalk outlines of people killed in Gaza on the floor.

“When I came back round they had all forced their way into the bank with all flags and signs saying ‘Barclays Wrexham closed due to complicity in Israel war crimes’ “.

The picture of the sign is zoomed in below – ( with us being tweeted later the exact wording ‘Barclays Wrexham. Closed for complicity in Israel’s war crimes.’ )

Becki who also saw the incident said “There’s lots of people crowded around, there’s people with both Welsh and Palestinian flags inside the bank.

“There was another women who held up a hand written sign saying Barclays were closed due to the Israeli war crimes.”

The top picture was the scene when Wrexham.com attended the scene around 3pm, where protestors were milling around and four police officers were inside the branch.

A police car was also situated close by, however the incident appeared to be over by 3pm with the branch closed to visitors.

Later on this afternoon we were tweeted the following picture from inside the branch itself:

Inside Barclays bank, sitting down in solidarity with #Gaza. @wrexham #GazaUnderAttack pic.twitter.com/n1vKoq0Ljm

— WISE Up Wales (@WISEUpWales) August 9, 2014