Business Standard

UK: Dozens ignore coronavirus advice not to travel to Stonehenge

Dozens of people have ignored advice not to travel to Stonehenge for the annual summer solstice celebrations, which were cancelled Monday due to coronavirus concerns

UK PM Boris Johnson said last week that he was “anxious” about the Indian variant, and warned that it could affect the country’s plans to reopen. Photo: Bloomberg)

AP London

Dozens of people have ignored advice not to travel to Stonehenge for the annual summer solstice celebrations, which were cancelled Monday due to coronavirus concerns.

English Heritage, which looks after the Neolithic monument, had planned a live feed of the sunrise at Stonehenge for the second year in a row. But the organization said that program had to be interrupted because of safety concerns after a number of people have chosen to disregard our request to not travel to the stones this morning.

Thousands of people who tuned in to watch the sunrise at the stones online ended up watching pre-recorded footage before the live feed returned around 5 a.m.

 

Video from Britain's PA news agency and elsewhere showed dozens of people gathering inside the stone circle, with some scaling a low fence to climb inside the restricted area to reach the stones. Some were seen dancing and others held a banner that read Standing for Stonehenge.

English Heritage said it was disappointing to see people act in a way that put themselves, our staff and the police at risk during a pandemic.

The summer solstice typically draws tens of thousands of people to the stone circle in southern England to celebrate the longest day of the year.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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First Published: Jun 21 2021 | 7:28 PM IST

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