Sydney (dpa) - Australian schoolchildren gathered outside Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s residence in Sydney on Thursday, demanding urgent climate action as the country faces an unprecedented bushfire crisis and an extreme heatwave.

Morrison is currently on a holiday with his wife and two daughters.
Local media have said they are in Hawaii, but the prime minister’s office has not confirmed this.

Hundreds of students were met with a riot squad when they arrived at Kirribilli House in Sydney, the capital of New South Wales, on Thursday morning where a state of emergency has been declared due to bushfire danger amid extreme heatwave conditions.

The protest was led by the Schools Strike 4 Climate movement, a group of Australian students closely aligned to a global youth movement for climate action started by Swedish teen activist Greta Thunberg.
The protest was broadcast live on Facebook, which showed young protesters dancing to Beyonce’s "I’m a Survivor" and Taylor Swift's "Shake it off."

"Thank you for doing nothing in Australia and holidaying in Hawaii," one of the girls said on Facebook Live video.

The young demonstrators carried placards that read: "When do our firefighters get a holiday?" and "Our land is burning, where the bloody hell are you," as well as "You’re burning our future," and "How’s the air in Hawaii?"
Later in the afternoon, David Shoebridge, a state parliamentarian, and nine others were arrested outside Morrison’s residence after the police forced the protesters to leave.
New South Wales Police confirmed nine adults and a minor were arrested for disobeying a police direction to move on. Several of the protesters were issued fines and were not charged.
The protesters pledged to stay in place until Morrison returned from his holiday and set up tents on the road outside the house, calling it "the Kirribilli camp-out." But they were confronted by police and asked to move along.
Earlier in the day, acting prime minister, Michael McCormack, said the young demonstrators should “go and do something productive.”
Some of the demonstrators wore Hawaiian shirts. The students also commented on the strong smell of smoke from bushfires.


The students, along with dozens of adult protesters outside the official residence of the Australian leader, demanded immediate action on climate change.


"Everyone is gathered here today to ask one question, ’Where the bloody hell is the prime minister?’" Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi said to massive cheers.
"Where the bloody hell are you?" is the slogan from an ad campaign Morrison oversaw when he was managing director of Tourism Australia in 2006.
There has been a massive uproar in recent days after local media and opposition politicians revealed that Morrison had gone on a holiday in Hawaii during deadly bushfires, which have burned 3 million hectares of land in eastern Australia, with #Morrisonfires, #WheresScotty, and #WhereTheBloodyHellAreYou, trending on Twitter.
Kim Loo, a doctor, said at Thursday’s rally in Sydney that there is no plan in place at the moment to deal with the effects of climate change on health.

"It is negligent not to do anything about mitigation or adaptation. It is criminal to continue mining, burning, exporting oil, coal and gas because it’s fuelling the crisis," Loo told the crowd.

"And this is the greatest crisis to our health in the 21st century."