Climate activists in Germany blocked a cruise ship from leaving the port of Kiel, north Germany, for up to six hours on Sunday.

Around 50 activists who dubbed themselves the ‘Smash Cruiseshit’ (Kreuzfahrtschiffe) group rode small boats in front of the ‘Zuiderdam’ cruise ship to prevent it from sailing out. The group demands an end to the entire cruise industry, which is one of the world’s biggest polluters.

Some of the activists climbed onto the bow and the mooring lines of the ship.

“We would like to live without the pollution of cruise ships. We would like to live in a world without global warming. So we have to do something to stop it right now,” the group said on Twitter on Sunday.

In a Twitter conversation with Greenpeace UK, who staged a protest off of an oil rig in Scotland on the same day, the group said it wasn’t just the cruise ship industry that they wanted to target.

“We embrace #climatejustice also on waterways or oceans - it's not only cruise ships or oil platforms. Let's get ready to block everything that burns fossil fuels.”

Police arrested 46 of the activists and have taken them into custody, reported Reuters.

Climate activists have taken to protesting across Europe this year, from Extinction Rebellion closing down central London to teenager Greta Thunberg calling on governments to recognise that we are living in a "climate emergency".

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