TWO men staged a fathers' rights protest after scaling cranes at a Newport building site this morning.

The Father's Day action - more than 100 feet up - on the site of the partially-built university campus on the west bank of the River Usk, lasted almost three hours and forced the temporary closure of the city centre's main transport route.

Traffic was re-routed away from Usk Way, which was closed by Gwent Police for safety reasons for around three hours, along a 300-metre stretch from the Newport Centre to the traffic lights near the Castle Bingo complex.

Neither man has been named by police, though they are believed to be from the Newport area.

Dressed in costumes depciting Captain America and Banana Man, they draped banners over the cranes' edges, one of which read: Where's Daddy? New Fathers 4 Justice.

New Fathers 4 Justice is a pressure group dedicated to what it describes as non-violent direct action, to try to get the Government to redraft the family law system, which it believes is biased against fathers.

Police were called to the scene around 7.40am.

Aside from inconvenienced motorists, only early morning anglers on the city footbridge, a team of police officers and the occasional curious passer-by, one of whom shouted angrily at the pair, witnessed the protest.

One protester climbed down shortly after 10am and was arrested after completing his descent. The other came down at 10.30am. He too was arrested. Usk Way reopened shortly afterwards.

Both men were being held on suspicion of trespass.