Jane Fonda arrested during climate change protest at Capitol Hill

Actress reportedly planned to get arrested

Jane Fonda has been arrested while taking part in a climate change protest.

On Friday, the actress, 81, was arrested on the steps of the US Capitol in Washington, DC, after announcing on Twitter that she would be participating in the protest.

In video taken by WUSA9, Fonda can be seen being led off the steps and taken into custody by police.

The actress's arrest comes after she told the Washington Post that she recently relocated to DC so she could be more active in the fight against climate change.

"I'm going to take my body, which is kind of famous and popular right now because of the [Netflix] series [Grace and Frankie] and I'm going to go to DC and I'm going to have a rally every Friday," Fonda told the newspaper. "It'll be called 'Fire Drill Friday.' And we're going to engage in civil disobedience and we're going to get arrested every Friday."

On the Fire Drill Fridays website, Fonda elaborated on her decision to move to the US capital, writing: "I've moved to Washington, DC to be closer to the epicentre of the fight for our climate. Every Friday through January, I will be leading weekly demonstrations on Capitol Hill to demand that action by our political leaders be taken to address the climate emergency we are in.

"We can't afford to wait."

According to the actress, she was inspired by climate change activist Greta Thunberg and the youth climate strikes, as well as "Reverend Barber's Moral Mondays and Randall Robinson's often daily anti-apartheid protests".

Fonda was one of 16 individuals arrested Friday for “unlawfully demonstrating on the East Front of the US Capitol,” US Capitol police communications director Eva Malecki told USA Today. All of the individuals arrested were charged with crowding, obstructing or incommoding.