A GLASGOW arms factory was evacuated today after Palestine solidarity activists stormed the site and occupied the roof. 

The six activists, who are members of the just-launched Palestine Action Scotland group, an offshoot of Palestine Action, clambered onto the roof of French arms firm Thales’s factory in Gove, Glasgow, in the early hours of Wednesday morning. 

The group said that activists also entered the building on Linthouse Road and “destroyed factory equipment and facilities.”

A video posted on the Palestine Action Twitter account showed factory workers leaving the building as activists in red jumpsuits waving Palestine flags stood on the roof. 

The action is the first launched by the group in Scotland and marks a further escalation in Palestine Action’s campaign of disruption against Israeli arms firm Elbit Systems and its partners in Britain. 

Palestine Action said that it targeted the factory to “end Scottish complicity in the apartheid, dispossession and ethnic cleansing enacted on Palestinians by the Israeli occupation.”

French firm Thales is one of the world’s largest arms companies, supplying armoured vehicles, drones and surveillance technology. 

It developed the Watchkeeper drone with Elbit Systems, which activists claim has been used on populations in Palestine, Iraq and Afghanistan. 

The model has also been deployed recently in the English Channel to monitor refugee boats. 

Thales is said to play a critical role in the militarisation of Europe’s borders through its manufacture of surveillance systems, according to the Campaign Against Arms Trade.

Police Scotland officers were in attendance at the scene after being called to a report of a demonstration at the sire at 6.25am.