Electric cars, as well as petrol and diesel vehicles, were targeted, as the group said these were still “polluting, dangerous and cause congestion”.

The group vowed to carry on targeting SUVs until they were banned or “taxed out of existence” as they said air pollution was “racist” and SUV drivers “tend to be richer, and therefore tend to be white”.

A representative for the group said: “Members are free to repeat the action whenever works for them, so it could happen tonight, and the night after, etc. We will repeat this until it is impossible to own an SUV in Britain.”

The group said it had “no official connection with any other movement” but the activity echoes that of direct action environmental groups such as Extinction Rebellion and Insulate Britain.

A spokesman for Extinction Rebellion said the project was “not an Extinction Rebellion action”.

‘Indiscriminate harassment’

Kate Basker, 33, from Bristol, who runs a digital marketing agency with her husband, said finding her tyres let down had made her worry about missing crucial hospital appointments.

She is pregnant and also has multiple sclerosis, meaning she sometimes relies on the car to get around when she can’t walk or use public transport.

“Our car is on a public street, we can’t have it off the road. I now feel quite vulnerable that someone is going to keep doing this to us, and it’s going to happen on a day when I really need it.

“It’s just indiscriminate harassment of people,” she said.

William Lowe, 42, who runs gin business Cambridge Distillery, found a flat tyre on his electric Land Rover, making him half an hour late for a meeting about sustainability and waste reduction.

He and his wife use the four-wheel-drive for farm visits twice a week, and he said they “very carefully” chose it for its low emissions.

He said: “This is a blunt force and myopic attempted solution to a sophisticated and nuanced problem. To my mind, they’ve achieved only one goal which is to rally the very people that they should be trying to motivate in support against them.

“How you can take a subject which is so pressing, and relevant to every living person, and manage to unite them against you is an act of incredible incompetence.”