Two men have been charged after banners were erected on Blackpool Tower to protest against a method of gas extraction, police said.

Lancashire Police were called at 7.25am on Saturday following reports that two men had erected banners up the south side of the tower.

Police confirmed yesterday that Robin Monaghan, 24 of Landsdowne Place, Hove, East Sussex, and Robert Basto, 63, of Blackborough Road, Reigate, Surrey, have both been charged with obstructing or disrupting a person engaged in a lawful activity.

The men have been bailed to appear at Blackpool Magistrates' Court on August 16.

Police believe the protest represented Frack Off, a website which campaigns against the use of "fracking" - a controversial extraction process which blasts water into rock to release gas.

Blackpool Tower is five miles east of the first fracking test well in the UK.

Cuadrilla Resources began looking for the energy in an underground stretch between Blackpool and Pendle Hill last year.

It suspended its fracking operations in June over fears of a link to two minor earthquakes in the Fylde area.

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