POLICE arrested 47 people this morning as 250 protesters descended on Faslane Naval Base.

Protesters used their bodies to blockade the main entrance to the country's nuclear submarine base and Police Scotland arrested 32 females and 15 males for various breaches of the peace.

The crowd gathered at the secure entrance of the Faslane Naval Base and around a dozen lay on the ground covered with banners and attached to each other with plastic piping to make a stand against the UK's Trident nuclear weapons system.

One voice shouted "they say warfare" and the chorus – estimated at between 200 and 250 by police – replied "we say welfare".

Dozens of police officers surrounded the protesters and formed a line in front of the metal gates.

One by one they used an electric saw to cut through the plastic piping and separate the protesters from each other before carrying them to waiting police vans.

The crowds, who were shepherded to the sides by police, cheered, chanted and sang in support of the activists who lay on the floor.

The blockade followed a weekend of protest, including a rally in George Square which saw thousands of anti-nuclear campaigners call for Scotland to disarm its nuclear weapons.

Today's blockade was one of more than a hundred protests in dozens of countries as part of a 'Global Day of Action on Military Spending'.

Keith Ross, 63, a former Royal Navy officer, had travelled from Swansea to attend the protest.

He said: "I am fundamentally opposed to nuclear weapons and as a former Royal Navy officer I can understand how useless they are.

"Who are we defending ourselves against? You wouldn't seriously consider throwing nuclear weapons at someone, it would be suicide.

"We are at a historic point where independence could deliver Scotland becoming a nuclear free country."

Disability rights campaigners, students, pensioners, international campaigners and environmentalists were among the protesters.

They tied banners to the 10ft high fences, displaying anti-nuclear weapon slogans such as 'Break the nuclear chains'.

Organisers, the Scrap Trident Coalition, said 30 people blocked the main gate with 20 'locked on', while eight were locked on at the South Gate.

Green MSP Patrick Harvie, who was in attendance to support the rally, said: "After many years, decades even, of campaigning against nuclear weapons I think people are excited about being on the verge of eventually doing something about it.

"If Scotland votes to take control of its own defence policy we will finally be able to consign Trident to history."

Mr Harvie said that if the country voted for independence it could mean the end of Trident, which he called an "immoral" weapon.

He said: "It doesn't discriminate between civilian and military targets.

"People will be campaigning in different ways including getting people to vote to take control."

Shonagh Glen, 31, from Maryhill in Glasgow, was the third generation of her family who have protested against nuclear weapons at Faslane.

She said: "I am here because I have been involved in anti-nuclear campaigning since I was a babe in arms.

"It is a family tradition."

She said she was opposed to the government making cuts to vital services such as women's services, because they are spending money on "bombs".

Leonna O'Neill, 27, has lived at the Faslane Peace Camp, around a mile down the road from Faslane, for the past two and a half years.

She was one of the organisers of the blockade.

Leonna said: "Today was the third day of action for Scrap Trident.

"Today is about solidifying the verbal message by putting words into action and saying 'we will stop this' and 'we will take action against this'."

At one point police stopped a protester who appeared to attempt to spray paint a message on the gates, and one man, who lay down in front of the pedestrian entrance at the gate, was carried by four officers to a waiting police van.