'Millions' protest in youth-led global climate strike

Masses of children skipped school to join a global strike against climate change that teen activist Greta Thunberg said was "only the beginning," ahead of a UN youth summit she will participate in Saturday.

Some four million people filled city streets around the world, organisers said, in what was billed as the biggest ever protest against the threat posed to the planet by rising temperatures.

Youngsters and adults alike chanted slogans and waved placards in demonstrations that started in Asia and the Pacific, spread across Africa, Europe and Latin America, before culminating in the United States where Thunberg rallied.

"Change is coming whether they like it or not," said Thunberg, hitting out at skeptics as she wrapped up the massive day of action in New York, where she said that 250,000 protested.

Strike organisers 350.org said Friday's rallies were the start of 5,800 protests across 163 countries over the next week.

From Berlin to Boston, Kampala to Kiribati, Seoul to Sao Paulo, protesters brandished signs with slogans including "There is no planet B" and "Make The Earth Great Again."
In Slovakia, five-year-old Teo asked a crowd of 500 "not to cut down forests, and reduce garbage production, and not to use so many petrol-fuelled cars."