A male Palestine Action activist attacked a female police sergeant with a sledgehammer and fractured her spine during a raid on an Israel-based defence firm’s UK site, a trial has heard.

Six members of the proscribed terror group are accused of carrying out an attack at Elbit Systems in Bristol after breaking into the factory in an old prison van in the early hours of August 6 last year.

Wearing white hard hats and red and black jumpsuits to represent which ‘team’ they were on during their operation, they allegedly used sledgehammers, whips, fireworks, an axe and a paintball gun as weapons and carried angle grinders.

Charlotte Head, 29, Samuel Corner, 23, Leona Kamio, 30, Fatema Rajwani, 21, Zoe Rogers, 22, and Jordan Devlin, 31, are charged with aggravated burglary, criminal damage and violent disorder in relation to the alleged break-in.

Corner denies a further charge of causing Police Sergeant Kate Evans grievous bodily harm.

Dramatic footage released by Counter Terror police shows members of Palestine Action, from the ‘Red Team’, inside the Elbit Systems building holding red smoke flares and wielding sledgehammers as they threateningly approached security guard Nigel Shaw.

Mr Shaw is seen to try and fight off the protesters with his umbrella as they menace him with the sledgehammers and shout: ‘Get the f**k out.’ 

One female member shouts ‘Over there right now!’ at the guard.

Another clip shows the group breaking into the building by using an old prison van to ram through a large roll-up door leading to a loading dock.

When police arrive one officer manages to grab hold of one of the hammers and has a terrifying stand off with another protester who tells him he is going to lose his job in the morning.

When another protester is arrested she repeatedly moans that the officer is hurting her after she had threatened Mr Shaw with the sledgehammer just minutes before.

Members of the group can be seen walking with sledgehammers whilst shouting and swearing before one male overpowered the officer recording with a bodycam and got on top of them.

Palestine Action member Samuel Corner, 23, (pictured), attacked Police Sergeant Kate Evans with a sledgehammer and fractured her spine, the trial was told

Jordan Devlin (top left), Leona Kamio (bottom right), Charlotte Head (centre left), Fatema Rajwani (centre right), Zoe Rodgers (bottom right) and Samuel Corner (top right) are charged with aggravated burglary, criminal damage and violent disorder in relation to the alleged break-in

Footage allegedly shows Corner striking Police Sergeant Kate Evans on her back as she screams from the painful blow which fractured her lumbar spine

The most distressing footage allegedly shows Corner striking Police Sergeant Kate Evans on her back as she screams from the painful blow which fractured her lumbar spine, leaving her unable to return to work for three months.

The alleged attacker is then seen being taken down by police officers with a taser and a final clip shows one Palestine Action member being dragged out of the building by police after all six were arrested.

PS Evans told Woolwich Crown Court on Monday she thought her spine was ‘shattered’ when she was hit to her lower back while she was on her knees arresting a female activist.

Giving evidence, she told the jury: ‘I can remember struggling with the handcuffs. The ratchet bit got caught on the clothing, on her red boiler suit.

‘Then I remember looking up at my colleague – he just had this shocked face on him then I just remember pain in my back.

‘It was just a massive shock vibrating through my whole body, a thud on my back. It just extended through my whole body down to my legs. I felt frozen.

‘I was stunned to begin with. I didn’t know what it was. I remember looking round and seeing the male with the sledgehammer behind me.’

She added: ‘I can remember a million thoughts racing through my head. When I look back, it was almost like I was in a movie and everything happened really fast around me.

‘My head’s thinking my spine is shattered at this point.’

Dramatic footage released by Counter Terror police shows members of Palestine Action, from the ‘Red Team’, inside the Elbit Systems building holding red smoke flares and wielding sledgehammers as they threateningly approached security guard Nigel Shaw

The attacker is then seen being taken down by police officers with a taser after he allegedly attacked PS Evans

Another clip shows the group breaking into the building by using an old prison van to ram through a large roll-up door leading to a loading dock

PS Evans told the trial she recalls only one blow, but her colleague Police Constable Peter Adams said he saw Corner hit her on her back twice.

PC Adams told the court: ‘I remember her screaming in pain and she’s fallen to the floor on her back.’

The court heard that PS Evans was left with a large bruise on her back and an X-ray showed there was a fracture to her lumbar spine, leaving her unable to return to work for three months.

Police Constable Aaron Buxton also attended the incident and recalled the ‘blonde male’, who hit PS Evans, swinging a sledgehammer at him moments before when he had tackled another activist to the floor.

He told the jury: ‘I was laid on my back with the male with brown hair on top of me. The male with blonde hair turned and walked back towards us. He has swung the sledgehammer multiple times towards me.

‘I don’t know how many times he swung it because in the moment I was scared. I believe it made contact with my right calf and my work radio.

‘I had quite considerable pain down that area of my leg following it. Also I had slight bruising come up.’

All six defendants were arrested at the factory.

Prosecutor Deanna Heer KC earlier told jurors: ‘They were armed with a variety of weapons, including whips, hammers, axes, metal skewers, one of them at least had a paintball gun, smoke grenades, flares and fireworks which once they’d entered they proceeded to light and throw or fire across the car park at Nigel Shaw as he approached them carrying nothing more than his umbrella.

‘Angelo Volante, another security guard, had been manning the front gate on the other side of the building, but sprinted round to the rear yard when he heard Nigel Shaw calling for help on the radio.

‘As he got close to Mr Volante, Mr Shaw ran across and tackled him to the ground, striking him across the back of the legs with his brolly.

‘As Mr Shaw tried to detain this particular member of the black team, this masked intruder said to Mr Shore: “We come in peace”.

‘The group then aggressively drove Shaw and Volante back cracking whips and throwing fireworks, screaming at them to ‘F**k off’ until Volante managed to grab a whip from one of them which he used in self-defence.

‘Eventually, the black team turned and left, retreating across the car park, towards the perimeter fence where the hole had earlier been discovered.

‘They climbed over the inner fence and disappeared into the undergrowth in the direction of the railway line.

‘As a result of this encounter, Nigel Shaw suffered a 4cm laceration to his head and abrasions to his back, shoulders and knees.

‘Caps on several of his front teeth, it seems, were also knocked out during the melee.

‘In subsequent footage of the activities that followed, he appears, as you will see, apparently disorientated with blood pouring down his face.’

A final clip shows one Palestine Action member being dragged out of the building by police after all six were arrested

When police arrive one officer manages to grab hold of one of the hammers and has a terrifying stand off with another protester who tells him he is going to lose his job in the morning

Leona Kamio seen being overpowered and arrested by police in footage taken during the raid

The prosecutor said: ‘The van was driven by Charlotte Head. Samuel Corner was the front passenger,’ the prosecutor said.

‘Leona Kamio, Fatema Zainab Rajwani, Zoe Rogers and Jordan Devlin were in the rear.

‘They were all dressed in red jumpsuits.

‘Their role was to cause as much damage as possible until they were forcibly stopped.’

Ms Heer told jurors: ‘They used fire extinguishers filled with red paint to spray the walls and floor.

‘They used crowbars and hammers to damage computer equipment and boxes of technical products, which they smashed apart.’

Corner of Rock Hill, Georgeham; Kamio, of Clifden Road, Hackney, east London; Rajwani, of Commonside East, Mitcham, south London; Rogers, of Selborne Road, Enfield, north west London; Devlin, of Stoke Newington High Street, north London and Head, of Upper Clapton Road, Hackney, all deny aggravated burglary, criminal damage and violent disorder.

Corner further denies causing grievous bodily harm with intent to PS Evans.

The court heard that Elbit Systems UK manufactures defence technology equipment and is a UK-registered company whose parent company is based in Israel. 

The trial continues.