The 21-year-old was among dozens of people held after protesters partially blocked a road in The Hague.

After she was released, Ms Thunberg quickly rejoined a small group of demonstrators who were blocking a different road leading to a railway station.

There, she was detained a second time and driven off in a police van.

Ms Thunberg told journalists she was protesting because the world is facing an existential crisis.

She said: "We are in a planetary emergency and we are not going to stand by and let people lose their lives and livelihood and be forced to become climate refugees when we can do something."

The demonstrators were protesting against Dutch subsidies and tax breaks to companies linked to fossil fuel industries.

The Extinction Rebellion group said before the demonstration that activists would block a main road into The Hague, but a heavy police presence, including officers on horseback, initially prevented the activists from getting on to the road.

A small group of people managed to sit down on another road and were detained after ignoring police orders to leave.

Extinction Rebellion activists have blocked the road that runs past the temporary home of the Dutch parliament more than 30 times to protest against the subsidies.

In February, Ms Thunberg was acquitted by a London court of refusing to follow a police order to leave a protest that was blocking the entrance to a major oil and gas industry conference last year.

Her activism has inspired a global youth movement demanding stronger efforts to fight climate change since she began staging weekly protests outside the Swedish parliament starting in 2018.

She has been repeatedly fined in Sweden and the UK for civil disobedience in connection with protests.