Over 100 suspected climate change protesters have been released by the police after they were arrested over an alleged plot to shut down a coal power station near Nottingham.

“Police have gathered a large amount of evidence which they are now reviewing,” says a Nottinghamshire police statement. “From the information gathered police believe those arrested were planning a period of prolonged disruption to the safe running of Ratcliffe-on-Soar Power Station.”

The UK has seen a series of power station protests in the last year but this operation was unusual both for the number of arrests and the fact these arrests occurred before the protest. The arrests come after wider controversies over policing including the death of a man who became caught up in protest around the G20 meeting in London. The Guardian newspaper obtained a video showing that the man was handled roughly by police just moments before his death.

There have also been complaints about policing of past climate change protests.

Shami Chakrabarti, director of civil rights group Liberty, says “In the light of the policing of the G20 protests, people up and down the country will want to be confident that there was evidence of a real conspiracy to commit criminal damage by those arrested and that this was not just an attempt by the police to disrupt perfectly legitimate protest.” (Guardian, Daily Mail.)

Police say they recovered “specialist equipment” after the raid on a school. Some papers say this included bolt cutters and locks.