Fifteen people have been arrested for trying to break into the military airbase at Volkel, Noord-Brabant, as a string of demonstrations against nuclear weapons continue.

The demonstrators carried pink spades and were trying to dig under the protective fence around the airbase when they were picked up by police.

Several dozen demonstrators have been camping in the neighbourhood since Monday, according to local broadcaster Omroep Brabant. The presence of nuclear weapons at the base has never officially been confirmed. 

On Monday, 60 activists blocked the entrance to the base for 78 minutes. It was 78 years to the day that the US dropped nuclear bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. 

Ten people were also arrested outside the base on Tuesday.