Protesters from environmental group Greenpeace shut down several of BP's 50 petrol stations in central London on Tuesday in protest at the Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Greenpeace said its activists had managed to close down 47 service stations in the capital. BP said only about 12 had been forced to close. The company said in a statement it would reopen them as soon as it was safe to do so.

The protests coincided with BP's second quarter results where the oil company reported a $17 billion loss and said it had set aside $32 billion to tackle the spill.

Greenpeace and BP said activists stopped the flow of fuel by flipping safety switches on forecourts before removing them to prevent the service stations from reopening.

BP described the action as "an irresponsible and childish act which is interfering with safety systems".

At one station in Camden, north London, Greenpeace climbers replaced BP's logo with a new version showing the green "sunflower" disappearing into a sea of oil.

The pressure group said the protests had been planned to urge new chief executive Bob Dudley to move away from his predecessor's "obsession with high risk, environmentally reckless sources of oil".

Greenpeace executive director John Sauven said: "The moment has come for BP to move beyond oil. Under Tony Hayward the company went backwards, squeezing the last drops of oil from places like the Gulf of Mexico, the tar sands of Canada and even the fragile Arctic wilderness.

"We've shut down all of BP's stations in London to give the new boss a chance to come up with a better plan. They're desperate for us to believe they're going 'beyond petroleum'. Well now's the time to prove it."-Reuters