An Indian-origin man was among two people campaigning for British environmental activist group Just Stop Oil who were arrested on Wednesday after spraying the 5,000-year-old Unesco World Heritage site, Stonehenge, near Salisbury, Wiltshire in England, with orange powder.
The campaigners were caught on video rushing to the stones and spraying powder paint even as visitors ran up to them shouting “no” and “stop,” before pulling them away.
Wiltshire police confirmed that the two had been arrested.
The Just Stop Oil activists struck a day before Summer Solstice celebrations at the ancient Stonehenge, which was built to align with the sun on the solstices. The sun rises behind the Heel stone on the summer solstice, its rays lighting up the centre of the site. On the winter solstice the sun sets at the south west of the stone circle.
A statement from Just Stop Oil, which identified the spray painting duo as Niamh Lynch, a 21-year-old Oxford student and Rajan Naidu, a 73-year-old from Birmingham, said cornflour had been used for the orange powder paint, which would "wash away with rain."
The incident was criticised by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer, with Sunak calling it a “disgraceful act of vandalism.”
Media outlets also quoted Nick Merriman, chief executive of English Heritage, as saying that the act was "deeply saddening".
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