A trio of topless feminist activists set off pink flares and staged a protest outside the Davos forum for the global elite today.

Braving sub-zero temperatures in the Swiss ski resort, the women from the Ukrainian group Femen tried to break through a security fence before police guarding the World Economic Forum bundled them away.

It was the second year running that the group has protested at Davos, where politicians, business leaders and officials from around the world gather for a round of seminars and cocktail parties.

Eventually the women, still struggling and topless, were carried off by police.