Part of Stonehenge has been covered in orange powder paint by protesters. Two Just Stop Oil campaigners sprayed the powder paint on the historic site near Salisbury, Wiltshire, at about 12:00 BST on Wednesday. The move comes the day before celebrations begin for the Summer Solstice at the 5,000-year-old landmark.
Wiltshire Police confirmed two people had been arrested on suspicion of damaging the ancient monument. Just Stop Oil said the orange powder paint was cornflour and it would "wash away with rain". The group named the two protesters as Niamh Lynch, a 21-year-old student from Oxford, and Rajan Naidu, a 73-year-old from Birmingham, in a statement.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak condemned the incident as a "disgraceful act of vandalism". Leader of the Labour Party Sir Keir Starmer said the damage was "outrageous" and described Just Stop Oil as "pathetic".
Members of the public were heard shouting "no" and seen running to intervene as the campaigners ran up to the stone circle at the Unesco world heritage site. Nick Merriman, chief executive of English Heritage, said the vandalism was "deeply saddening". He told the BBC's Today programme the stones are "testament to people's desire to connect to nature", and while he respected the rights of people to protest, he hoped they would channel their activism away from museum sites in future.
BBC correspondent Paul Clifton said the three stones closest to the public path were "splattered" with the powder. Just Stop Oil said the motivation behind the incident was to demand the next UK government end the extraction and burning of oil, gas and coal by 2030. A spokesperson for the group said: "Continuing to burn coal, oil and gas will result in the death of millions. We have to come together to defend humanity or we risk everything."
