The 39-year-old Briton, who won C2 canoe slalom gold medal with Tim Baillie at London 2012, was carried from Waterloo Bridge by four police officers yesterday evening.

To applause from fellow protestors, he shouted out warnings of an "ecological crisis" as he was taken away.

Stott is not among the 40 people who have so far been charged by the Metropolitan Police.

Earlier in the day he had given a speech while sitting on top of a bus alongside television presenter and naturalist Chris Packham.

Speaking last week, Stott claimed the protests were "really important".

"I don't think there is anything more meaningful that I could be doing in my life right now," said Stott.

"I feel like it is really tough to disrupt people's lives like this, but this is really important because I believe the disruption that will come down the line if we do not declare a climate emergency and do not tackle this situation of climate change, it will just dwarf any inconvenience here today."

As of 7pm last night, 963 people had been arrested during the Extinction Rebellion protests in the UK capital.

Thousands of people have been campaigning at sites including Oxford Circus, Waterloo Bridge, Westminster and Marble Arch.

The protestors have been calling for the British Government to declare a climate emergency - although they hinted they would pause the disruption to focus on political negotiations.

A spokesman warned the disruption could get "much worse" if politicians were not open to their negotiation requests.