Meanwood tyre extinguishers: Dozens of SUVs and 4x4 cars in Leeds have tyres deflated by climate activists

Tyres on SUVs and 4x4 cars had been deflated by way of inserting lentils into the valves and leaflets had been left on the car windshields signed off with ‘Tyre Extinguishers’. The notice reads: “ATTENTION – your gas guzzler kills.

"We have deflated one or more of your tyres.

"You’ll be angry – don’t take this personally. It’s not you. It’s your car.

"We did this because driving around urban areas in your massive vehicle has huge consequences on others.”

The note goes on to say the cars are a “disaster for our climate” and outlines the impact that climate change is having on the environment. It reads: “We need emergency action to reduce emissions immediately, for everyone’s lives. We wish we didn’t have to, but we are taking action into our own hands because our governments and politicians will not.

"That’s why we have taken this action. Please ask yourself how you can use walking, cycling and public transport instead.”

Stephanie Wood of Monk Bridge Avenue said she noticed the leaflet on her car as she left to walk her son to school but paid it no mind. It was when she got to school she realised that the deflated tyres was the “talk of the playground”.

She said: “It’s just crazy.

“I said that I’d seen a leaflet and someone said ‘they will have got you too’.”

Ms Wood said she noticed numerous cars on her way home had been targeted before she checked on her Ford Puma Hybrid and saw that one of the back tyres had been deflated.

She said: “There was loads around the Highbury’s and Bentley roads that had been done as well.

"I know a few people where they’ve even gone on their drive and done it.

"There were six people in my boy’s class alone that had been done.”

She said that one elderly lady that lived opposite her was in tears after the car that she had owned for just 10 days was targeted. Ms Wood added that the lady called out an engineer who came to look at her car as well and found that lentils had been placed in the valve of the car to deflate it automatically.

She said: “They said on the leaflet they wouldn’t target blue badge holders but that has not been the case.

"This engineer had to drive from Bradford in a massive recovery van which is hardly good for the environment. It’s pointless.

"It happened once before but this time they’ve gone crazy. There must’ve been a few of them doing it.”

Another woman told the Yorkshire Evening Post: “My friend had four tyres slashed just before she went on the school run and it cost her £160 - that’s the children's monthly food. She only has she a 1.2 engine as well.

"It’s so close to Christmas it is not fair.”

The Tyre Extinguishers website provides more information about their campaign, including one page that says “target posh / middle-class areas”.

West Yorkshire Police have been contacted for a statement.