LONDON - Climate activists protested outside the Lloyd's of London insurance market on Friday, dumping a load of fake coal outside its headquarters as part of a campaign against insuring fossil fuel mining.

Activists from the Extinction Rebellion group unfurled banners with slogans such as "Climate Criminals" and dumped a load of blackened boulders in the road outside the Lloyd's building on Lime Street in the heart of the City of London.

"Do not insure the West Cumbria coal mine," read a placard placed into the pile of boulders outside Lloyd's.

Extinction Rebellion wants to prompt a wider revolt against the political, economic and social structures of the modern world to avert the worst scenarios of devastation outlined by scientists studying climate change.

Activists from the group smashed the window frontage of HSBC's headquarters in Canary Wharf on Thursday and two weeks ago shattered Barclays windows.  

(Reporting by Natalie Thomas and Henry Nicholls, writing by Guy Faulconbridge, editing by Alistair Smout) ((guy.faulconbridge@thomsonreuters.com; 07825218698;))