A dozen people were arrested at a shale gas protest site near Harcourt, N.B. early Friday after protesters tried to block shale gas exploration trucks.

Thumper trucks have been testing for shale gas on Route 126 for 10 days but First Nations, environmentalists and concerned residents have been expressing strong opposition to the practice.

They set up a protest site near Harcourt, about 50 kilometres north of Moncton, three days ago.

The testing trucks approached the protest site at approximately 7 a.m. Friday when protesters attempted to block the trucks from passing.

Witnesses say about 50 RCMP officers advanced on the protesters, arresting 12 people. They will face mischief and obstruction charges.

Dallas McQuarrie and his wife were among those arrested. He says they were praying at the time and that their arrests were worth it.

“I’m an old guy. I will be dead before too long,” says the Saint-Ignace resident. “That is a fact of life, but my children are still around and my grandson has got to live in this world.”

“Some people were treated, I thought, more roughly than others,” says protester Caroline Lubbe-D’Arcy. “One of them was my husband. I saw he was just standing there and he ended up being thrown to the ground.”

“I think it is ridiculous. They had, like, 50 officers come down here,” says protester Pamela Ross. “They just pushed their way through people and they had another 20 or 30 up the road.”

Political science professor Wayne Hunt says it appears that police response to the protest has been disproportionate.

“It looks like it is over-the-top,” says Hunt. “Far more police than are actually necessary because obviously there is a nervousness on their part and that is how they are reacting to this.”

But RCMP Cpl. Chantal Farrah says police are doing what is needed to ensure everyone’s safety.

“Police resources have been fluctuating at the sites of demonstrations, depending on information that we had for possible activities, but I would remind people we are there as a neutral party,” says Farrah. “We do not take sides. We are there for public safety.”

Sheila Handrahan, who lives near the protest site, has been anxiously watching the developments unfold.

“I feel it went well because I don’t think anyone got hurt, even though there were arrests made,” says Handrahan. “I don’t believe anyone got hurt and that was my main concern.”

A condition of release for those arrested is to stay away from areas where seismic testing is taking place.

With files from CTV Atlantic's David Bell