Hundreds of cars across UK have tyres deflated overnight by activist group

Hundreds of motorists woke up to discover the air had been let out of the tyres on their cars by an activist group calling themselves 'The Tyre Extinguishers'.

Striking hundreds of cars overnight across the UK and in other countries, the group claims they've launched their biggest night of action against big petrol-guzzling vehicles.

Claiming to be 'defending ourselves against climate change', the group's stated aim is 'to make it impossible to own a huge polluting 4x4 in the world's urban areas'.

For six months the group has targeted the tyres on SUVs, which they believe to be unnecessary and bad for the environment, and marked their half-year of activism with their biggest night of deflations.

They say they've deflated the tyres of at least 600 cars in one night, while over the past few months they claim to have struck thousands of vehicles.

There have been plenty of previous incidents over the past few months where motorists have found the tyres on their car deflated and a letter stuck on the windshield.

While first originating in the UK, the group's activities have spread to many other countries across the world.

We know it's the same group because they leave letters covered in their logo explaining their campaign on the cars they've hit.

The letters say the deflations aren't personal and argue that targeting SUVs in urban areas is justified as they're bad for the environment and cause lots of pollution.

In a statement they said: "Courageous citizens all over the world last night deflated tyres on at least 600 SUVs, exactly two months before the opening of the United Nations COP27 climate summit in Egypt.

"Six months ago, the Tyre Extinguishers movement launched in the UK, using lentils to deflate SUV tyres in 13+ UK locations.

"That movement has since spread all over the world to the United States, Canada, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Sweden, Austria, and New Zealand."

Last night the group said they deflated cars in Bristol, Edinburgh, Dundee and London across the UK, as well as vehicles in other major cities around the world.

The activist group also argues that hybrid and electric cars are 'fair game' for getting their tyres deflated, claiming that the mining of the materials involved in the production of such cars 'causes suffering'.

What they say they won't target are 'normal' sized cars, traders' cars, vehicles belonging to people with disabilities or minibuses.

The group have said they will keep deflating people's tyres until politicians do more to tackle the climate change crisis, including banning SUVs, imposing heavy taxes on polluting vehicles and big investment into public transport.