Hundreds of people visited Stonehenge for the summer solstice despite official advice asking they stay away because of Covid restrictions.
Due to safety concerns, English Heritage stopped a live feed of the sunrise at the site in Wiltshire at 04:52 BST.
People climbed over a low fence to gain access to the neolithic monument. Video footage from the scene showed around a hundred visitors inside the stone circle. The police say the event was peaceful, but the amount of people caused issues in nearby Avebury.
Putting safety first
Thousands tuned in to the English Heritage live stream for the solstice. However, instead of seeing the sunrise they ended up with pre-recorded footage. The feed resumed at around 05:00 BST showing mainly cloudy skies.
Host Ed Shires apologised for the outage, and not being able to bring people the pictures they wanted. He was disappointed that so many people chose to disregard the request to not travel there, which resulted in pulling the live stream. They needed to to put the safety of staff members first.
The organisation was all ready to welcome visitors , but then the government delayed easing lockdown measures until July. Usually up to 30,000 people attend to watch the sunrise over the stones on the longest day of the year. But this year people were told to stay away because of Covid, and official access to Stonehenge and Avebury was stopped. Crowds started to gather on Sunday evening so police cordoned off the area.
Superintendent Dave Minty, from Wiltshire Police, says the majority of people were well behaved. Despite the build up of crowds, only one person was arrested, for being drunk and disorderly.
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