Pregnant protester comes up for air

A pregnant woman who was among the last protesters remaining in a tunnel at the planned Manchester Airport runway site came out voluntarily yesterday after feeling unwell.

The woman, a trained nurse called Denise, had spent 10 days down the "Cake Hole" with three male companions but yesterday was worried that dehydration could harm her and her unborn child. A Cheshire Police spokesman said that Denise had been taken to Wythenshawe Hospital in Manchester "as a precaution", and it was expected that she would later be arrested and taken to Wilmslow police station. It is thought that bailiffs could take several days to remove protesters Matt, Muppett Dave and Neville, who are holding out behind up to 11 locked steel doors in the 50ft deep, 100ft long tunnel.