A free speech activist has been arrested in Brussels for holding up a sign warning about the dangers of puberty blockers for children.

Lois McLatchie Miller from ADF International was detained alongside Chris Elston, known as Billboard Chris, whilst conducting interviews in the Belgian capital.

The pair were displaying messages stating "children cannot consent to puberty blockers" and "no child has ever been born in the wrong body" when they were confronted by what McLatchie Miller described as "violent, angry men".

"They were particularly harassing me, trying to mess with the equipment, pushing me back, shouting in my face," McLatchie Miller told GBN Originals presenter Emma Trimble.

Lois McLatchie Miller revealed that she was arrested on the street

She added: "We ended up calling the police because more people came and surrounded us as quite a violent mob.

"We didn't know if it was going to descend into something unsafe, so we called the police for our own safety.

"When the police showed up, they looked at the situation, saw the messages written on our boards, and instead of arresting those who were being aggressive and harassing us, they arrested us instead."

The police claimed the activists were holding an unauthorised demonstration, despite their insistence they were simply conducting interviews.

"They claimed we were holding a demonstration, but as I explained several times, it was no demonstration. It would have been pretty pathetic if it was, with just two people," McLatchie Miller said.

She questioned whether the subject matter influenced the police response: "If we had been talking about climate change, or Israel and Gaza, or any of these issues, would they ask us to get permission to talk about them?"

Officers gave the activists an ultimatum at the scene, threatening criminal charges if they refused to leave.

She explained: "If you can’t speak the truth in the face of hostility, you never will. It would have been a victory for censorship, a victory for this horrible ideology that says kids should maim and sterilise themselves at an age when they have no idea what they’re doing.

"So it wouldn’t have been right to give up. We wanted to protect our rights to free speech, so we got into the police car.

"We went to the station, we were handcuffed, and we were told at that point that we were arrested and would be charged with disturbing the peace.

"We were quite surprised. That had never been communicated to us before. We didn’t know we were facing a criminal charge.

The pair were arrested whilst protesting in Brussels

"We had only called for our own safety. But yes, as I said, later on it seemed that the criminal charge was dropped.

"They said we might receive an administrative fine, but by the time we left, we didn’t even have a fine anymore. We were just free to go."

The incident has raised concerns about freedom of expression in the EU capital.

GBN Originals presenter Emma Trimble described it as "a worrying culture at the heart of the European Union" noting that the activists had been detained "for seemingly no reason" without proper charges.