Earlier today, two Just Stop Oil activists sprayed orange powder paint over Stonehenge. Summer Solstice celebrations are set to begin at the 5,000-year-old historical site on 20 June.
In a statement published shortly after the act, Just Stop Oil named the two protesters as Niamh Lynch, a 21-year-old student from Oxford, and Rajan Naidu, a 73-year-old from Birmingham. The protesters demand that the incoming UK government commit to working towards a plan to end the extraction and burning of oil, gas and coal by 2030.
‘Stonehenge at solstice is all about celebrating the natural world – but look at the state it’s in’, Lynch said in the statement. ‘We all have a right to live a life free from suffering, but continued burning of oil, coal and gas is leading to death and suffering on an unparalleled scale.’
Naidu added that ‘The orange cornflour we used to create an eye-catching spectacle will soon wash away with the rain.’
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has responded to the incident, condemning it as a ‘disgraceful act of vandalism to one of the UK’s and the world’s oldest and most important monuments’.
Lynch and Naidu were detained by the Wiltshire Police on suspicion of damaging the ancient monument.
