Five Just Stop Oil protesters arrested after a performance of Les Miserables in London’s West End was halted remain in custody as police appealed for anyone with footage of the protest to get in touch.

Several activists “invaded” the stage at the Sondheim Theatre during Do You Hear The People Sing? locking themselves onto it with flexible bicycle locks.

The performance did not resume and the Metropolitan Police later confirmed five people aged 28, 23, 22, 19 and 18 were arrested on suspicion of aggravated trespass.

Audience members will be offered refunds or tickets for another performance following the protest on Wednesday.

Catherine Francoise, from Buckinghamshire, was in the audience with a group of more than 30 people who she organises theatre trips for.

She said she has watched Les Miserables more than 50 times and spoke of how she was sitting “in the centre of the front row”, claiming that the protesters from Just Stop Oil were seated at either end of the second row.

The professional singer and organiser at VPA Theatre Trips told the PA news agency: “I could see out the corner of my eye something happening on the left, I noticed first, and I knew it wasn’t part of the production.

“The cast were still going, the orchestra was still playing, and after about 15 seconds, somebody came on stage and moved the cast off.

“Meanwhile, security were on it trying to get the girls off that were on the left hand side.

“I thought they had stuck themselves (to the floor), but it turns out they had actually cable-tied themselves together, and then padlocked themselves together, and then padlocked that to part of the scenery.”

Ms Francoise added that as one of the protesters walked up to the stage carrying a banner, a member of her party who was sitting at the end of the first row “grabbed the banner and threw it off”.

She explained that first, the cast members were removed from the stage, shortly followed by the orchestra, with the audience being asked to leave around 15 minutes later.

“The audience were definitely making far, far more noise than the protesters,” she said.

“Later on when we were evacuated out, there was a young girl, she was about 12 or 13, and she was crying.

“The adults were just furious, but the younger people might’ve been shocked or a bit frightened about what was happening.”

She added: “(We were) disappointed, really, really disappointed.

“Everybody was gutted last night.”