Several pupils from a Carshalton primary school were inspired enough by a Swedish teenager to join a major protest about climate change in central London.

Greta Thunberg, 16, has been urging leaders to ramp up their efforts in tackling the environmental problem by campaigning every Friday outside her country’s parliament.

Since then children and young people across the United Kingdom took similar stands in the Youth Strike 4 Climate Action demonstration.

Some carried banners and slogans saying, “There is no planet B”, while others read, “Why should I clean my room when the world is in such a mess?”.

And among them were pupils from All Saints’ Carshalton Church of England Primary School who joined the major demonstration in central London.

They managed to briefly stop traffic in Carshalton High Street on February 15 before heading towards the protests.

One of the schoolchildren, Edie, who is eight, said: “I wanted to go as the whole world is at risk of dying and we want to stop it happening. If the world stops working there will be lots of creatures that will become extinct.

“It’s humans that are destroying the world but we can do something about it, we need to stop burning fossil fuels, save energy, stop cutting down trees.

“If we keep cutting down trees there won’t be enough to help clean our air and help stop the planet from heating up.”

Six-year-old Frank held a sign which read, “Stop climate change”, as the group briefly stopped traffic in Carshalton High Street.

He said some people gave them a thumbs up, and drivers beeped their horns, because they liked the signs.

Frank added: “It made me feel happy, they were supporting me and we’re going to help to stop polluting the planet.”

Their mum Verity Thomson insists the decision to allow her children not to attend school was “not one I took lightly”, but believes climate change needs to be discussed more in the national curriculum.

She said: “I do believe it is an emergency. Scientists have talked about it for decades but not enough has been done.

“We can all do our best as individuals to make changes in our lives to reduce our impact on the environment, but we need industry and Government to make big changes that will radically change our infrastructure.

“Plastic has been in the headlines a lot and awareness raised through programmes like ‘Blue Planet’, but how do we escape single use plastics when they are everywhere in the shops?

“If people had more choice, I’m sure they would avoid it.”

At the demonstration, mounted police were used to move some groups of protesters off the roads as traffic became blocked and congested.

Scotland Yard said three people were arrested - including a 17-year-old for a public order offence, alongside a 19-year-old and a 16-year-old each for obstructing the highway.

All Saints’ Carshalton Church of England Primary School declined to comment.