Dakota Access protesters demonstrate outside White House against Donald Trump expediting pipeline projects

Demonstration organised at last minute after Mr Trump announced two executive orders

Hundreds turned up outside the White House on the fourth day of Donald Trump's presidency to protest against his executive orders advancing the construction of the controversial Dakota Access and Keystone XL pipelines.

Protesters known as "water protectors" staged a demonstration outside the White House on Tuesday, after many travelled from Standing Rock, where they had been camping out for months in protest against the proposed pipeline.

Some reports suggested thousands had turned up to the protest.

Organisers of the protest said it was organised at the last minute after Mr Trump announced the two executive orders.

"Join us tonight as we stand with Indigenous leaders and climate activists, commit to the fight ahead and show that these pipelines will not be built without a fight," the organisers wrote on Facebook.

"Stopping these projects will require action at home, in the halls of power, and in the path of each pipeline."

Mr Trump’s orders overturn decisions made by Barack Obama to halt the construction of both projects.

Mr Obama rejected the Keystone pipeline in November 2015.

A year later, the US Army Corps of Engineers denied the permit to build the $3.8bn Dakota Access Pipeline amid months of protest outside the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota.

The terms of the order would be subject to renegotiation between the US government and the companies involved.

Environmental groups promised significant action in response to Mr Trump's decision.

“A powerful alliance of Indigenous communities, ranchers, farmers, and climate activists stopped the Keystone and the Dakota Access pipelines the first time around, and the same alliances will come together to stop them again if Trump tries to raise them from the dead,” said Greenpeace USA executive director Annie Leonard said.

“Instead of pushing bogus claims about the potential of pipelines to create jobs, Trump should focus his efforts on the clean energy sector where America’s future lives.”