Protesters who dug Great Escape-style tunnels in fight against new drilling by fracking firm are removed on stretchers by rescue teams

• e-mail

Rescue teams have cleared out anti-fracking protestors hiding in an intricate network of tunnels they dug in a bid to halt oil exploration near the Sussex Downs.

Using only shovels and spades, demonstrators spent around three months creating the massive tunnel network as deep as 300ft to protest the drilling.

The group started digging in Coldharbour, Surrey, soon after Europa Oil & Gas, who have permission to carry out 18 weeks of exploratory drilling there, told them to vacate the land. 

In the shadow of giant fort they built to protest the drilling, officials were tonight seen dragging them from the site against their will.

One unsettling photo showed a smiling woman tied to an orange stretcher while others captured rescuers, paid by Europa Oil & Gas, escorting two men from the site.

Officials with riot shields formed a human shield around their colleagues during the eviction.

Rescue teams have cleared out anti-fracking protestors hiding in the intricate network of tunnels they dug in the Sussex Downs

One unsettling photo showed a smiling woman, who had protested against the fracking in Surrey, tied to an orange stretcher

Other photos showed rescuers, paid by Europa Oil & Gas, escorting two men from the site

Fracking protestors have dug an intricate network of tunnels more than 300ft underground near the Sussex Downs in a bid to halt oil exploration. Pictured: The massive fort they built over the top

Using only shovels and spades, they spent around three months creating the massive subterranean network

The group started the digging in Coldharbour, Surrey, after they were ordered to clear off the land where Europa Oil & Gas have permission to carry out 18 weeks of exploratory drilling

Around 30 protestors are thought to have been living illegally on the site, but most of them have left or been forcibly removed

Several tree houses were discovered in the trees and taken down within the first hours of the operation by a a team of bailiffs

But specialist rescue teams had to be called in to clear the network at 4am yesterday because it was deemed too dangerous for normal bailiffs to get the demonstrators out.

Alongside the shovels and spades beneath the ground, rescuers discovered a copy of 'Disco Dave's Tunnelling Guide', a manual favoured by serial protestors hoping to throw spanners in the works of fracking projects.

Around 30 protestors are thought to have been living illegally on the site, but most of them have left or been forcibly removed.

It is thought there are only four currently on the site, but it is not clear if there are any others hidden underground.

Rescue teams went back at 11am today to shift the remaining protestors in the tunnels.

Another worker, who asked not to be named, said: 'I’ve not seen anything like this since Swampy. It’s ridiculous, they must have spent hundreds of hours digging.'

Peter Faulding, a confined space rescue specialist who was in charge of the operation, said: 'We arrived early on site yesterday morning and we knew there was one tunnel, a small short tunnel, but we didn't realise the extent. 

Opponents of Oil drilling plans on Leith Hill have been evicted from a tower on a wellsite under which they had dug tunnels

Rescue teams went back at 11am today to shift the remaining protestors in the tunnels and tree houses

In the shadow of giant fort they built to protest the drilling, officials were tonight seen dragging them from the site against their will

Officials with riot shields formed a human shield around their colleagues during the eviction

Rescuers discovered a copy of 'Disco Dave's Tunnelling Guide', a manual favoured by serial protestors hoping to throw spanners in the works of fracking projects

Europa Oil and Gas was granted permission to drill on the land in 2015 after a four-year planning battle including two public inquiries

It is thought there are only four protestors currently on the site, but it is not clear if there are any others hidden underground. Pictured: Demonstrators outside of the fencing

Rescue teams, paid for by the Europa, went back at 11am today to shift the remaining protestors in the tunnels

Search teams from Specialist Group International have been brought in to dig out the rabbit warren of tunnels that protests have built

The wooden fortress that anti-fracking protestors have made at a protest camp on Leith Hill, Surrey

Protest removal experts said they were confronted with a series of tunnels dug through sand which protestors had scrambled down as soon as they realised the site was being cleared

 A digger starts to smash in the roof of the tunnels which took around three months to dig

'There was a massive network of tunnels. They were quite complex and highly dangerous.

'They're used by protestors to delay evictions. They know it costs money, they know it delays and slows everybody down.'

Peter, the head of Specialist Group International, reckons it could take three days to shift the protestors.

He said: 'We have to pump breathing air down to keep the oxygen levels up. They normally have lock-on devices in the tunnels that they put their arms into to trap themselves - digging them out can take hours.

'We got to the stage last night of clearing the external tunnels but they have gone back into the fort overnight and a number of protestors have managed to get back in.'

Teams moved onto the site at dawn yesterday and installed wooden panels to shore up the entrances to the tunnels, which were built deep through sandy earth.

Teams moved onto the site at dawn today and installed wooden panels to shore up the entrances to the tunnels

Search teams from Specialist Group International have been brought in to dig out the rabbit warren of tunnels that protests have built

A member of the rescue team patrols the wooden fortress rescuers built, close to their network of subterranean tunnels

Pictured: Protest removal experts work to shore up tunnels built under the make-shift fort in at Coldharbour in Surrey

Pictured: An entrance to the tunnels that burrow down under the protestor's camp

Pictured: The tunnels are built throw unstable sandy ground and it is feared the safety of protestors is now at risk

Protest removal experts said they were confronted with a series of tunnels dug through sand which protestors had scrambled down as soon as they realised the site was being cleared.

Peter Faulding, Chief Executive of Specialist Group International Ltd, who was responsible for removing eco warrior Swampy from the Newbury by-pass protest site in the 1997, said that the occupiers were well organised.

Other campaigners chained themselves to concrete barrels on the top of the fortress which was bolted to the floor with poles.

Mr Faulding said the operation had turned into a rescue with the tunnels being unstable due to the consistency of the earth with air being pumped in to keep the unknown number of protestors alive. 

He said: 'It is exactly like the Great Escape tunnels. To be fair they have done a great job as the have hand-dug out tunnels which run under the surface about 20 to 30 feet long. 

Search teams from Specialist Group International have been brought in to dig out the rabbit warren of tunnels that protests have built

Pictured: Campaigners stand by the side of the road after being evicted from their camp

Pictured: Evidence of the network of tunnels at the site, where campaigners are protesting about oil drilling

Pictured: Police officers arrive at the scene in Surrey, where protestors have chained themselves in a network of tunnels underground

'They are tiny as only one person can get through them at any time and we have been told there are protestors down there and that they could be in chambers chained up.

'The tunnels have been dug through sand are very unstable. We cannot move vehicles onto the site because of the tunnels.

'The safety of the protestors in the tunnels and everyone on site is of the utmost importance.

'It has to be treated as a rescue operation where were shore up the sides of these tunnels a metre at a time before we can go in there.' 

The tunnels and other protestors tactics were used to delay the clearance of the site and cause maximum costs for their removal.

The camp became occupied in October last year and were welcomed by local residents many of whom are unhappy with the fracking planned. 

General views of the wooden fortress that protestors have made at a protest camp on Leith Hill

Pictured: Workers attempt to shore up the sandy tunnels built by protestors at the base of their make-shift fort

Pictured: The giant fort assembled by campaigners at their camp, which has since been cleared on ground level

Pictured: Protestors' banners campaigning against the fracking planned at the Green Belt site

Europa Oil and Gas was granted permission in 2015 after a four-year planning battle including two public inquiries.

The plans to frack includes cutting down a hectare of woodland and erecting a temporary derrick, a 100ft high tower, in Bury Hill Wood near to Leith Hill a popular beatuy spot.

Drillers hope to discover a deviated well a kilometre below the surface and underneath the car park of the Plough Inn Pub, in Coldharbour, Surrey.

If oil is present up to 11 million barrels of oil could be harvested from the site.