LONDON — Environmental protesters sprayed an orange substance throughout a part of Britain’s Stonehenge on Wednesday afternoon.
British environmental activist group Just Stop Oil posted video of the incident on the social media platform X, exhibiting two of its supporters spraying three of the stones inside the prehistoric megalithic construction on Salisbury Plain in southern England’s Wiltshire county. Both folks have been subsequently arrested, in response to the group, which additionally posted video of police taking the 2 campaigners into custody.
Wiltshire Police confirmed in a press release Wednesday that its officers responded to the scene at Stonehenge and “arrested two people on suspicion of damaging the ancient monument.” An investigation into the incident is “ongoing,” the police division stated.
Climate protesters spray orange materials on Stonehenge within the United Kingdom on June 19, 2024.
Just Stop Oil through Storyful
Just Stop Oil wrote in a publish on X that the sprayed substance is “orange powder paint” and “is made of cornstarch, which will wash away in the rain.”
“But the urgent need for effective government action to mitigate the catastrophic consequences of the climate and ecological crisis will not,” the group added.
Climate protesters spray orange materials on Stonehenge within the United Kingdom on June 19, 2024.
Just Stop Oil through Storyful
A Just Stop Oil spokesperson stated in a press release Wednesday that the motion at Stonehenge got here because the group calls for the British authorities commits “to a legally binding treaty to phase out fossil fuels by 2030.”
A spokesperson for English Heritage, the charity that cares for Stonehenge and tons of of different historic websites in England, confirmed to ABC News that “orange powdered paint has been thrown at a number of the stones at Stonehenge.”
“Obviously, this is extremely upsetting and our curators are investigating the extent of the damage,” the spokesperson stated in a press release Wednesday. “Stonehenge stays open to the general public.”
The full moon units behind Stonehenge on April 27, 2021 in Amesbury, England.
Finnbarr Webster/Getty Images, FILE
Stonehenge is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is without doubt one of the hottest vacationer points of interest within the United Kingdom.
Just Stop Oil has change into identified for its disruptive environmental protests throughout the U.Ok., with its supporters inflicting closures on main roadways and public transportation and even vandalizing well-known artworks in galleries and museums.