FOUR protesters have been arrested on the second day of demonstrations at a proposed fracking site in Kirby Misperton.

Men aged 54, 53 and 23-years-old were arrested on Wednesday afternoon on suspicion of wilful obstruction of a highway.

The 53-year-old man was also arrested for allegedly having an article with intent to destroy or damage property.

A woman was arrested at about 2.20pm on suspicion of obstructing a person engaged in lawful activity, and possessing a bladed article in a public place.

They remain in custody as enquiries continue.

Around 100 people staged a demonstration on Tuesday and two men were arrested.

The crowd gathered at the site, near Pickering, as preparation work began at the Third Energy gas well.

Superintendent Lindsey Robson, of North Yorkshire Police, said: “We’ll continue to take a neighbourhood policing approach to protests – that means we will talk to people, to explain what is acceptable in terms of safety and reasonableness, and ask them to work with us to make this a safe and peaceful protest.

"We would rather talk to people and persuade them to move, than have to make arrests.” 

Fracking is the process of blasting a mix of chemicals and water deep underground to hydraulically fracture rock and extract shale gas.