Climate Protestors Arrested for Spraying Stonehenge in Orange Paint

Two people have been arrested in the United Kingdom after using orange powder paint to deface Stonehenge. 

Activist group Just Stop Oil, whose organization focuses on climate change, shared footage to X (formerly known as Twitter) on Wednesday, June 19, of the coordinated effort at the site of the prehistoric megalithic structure on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, England.

“We have arrested two people following an incident at Stonehenge this afternoon,” Wiltshire police said in a statement.

“At around noon, we responded to a report that orange paint had been sprayed on some of the stones by two suspects. Officers attended the scene and arrested two people on suspicion of damaging the ancient monument. Our inquiries are ongoing.”

PEOPLE has contacted Wiltshire Police for additional comment.

Just Stop Oil confirmed the identities of the suspects on their organization’s official website as Niamh Lynch, a 21-year-old student from Oxford, and Rajan Naidu, 73, from Birmingham. 

Their goal was to demand “that the incoming UK government commit to working with other governments to agree an equitable plan to end the extraction and burning of oil, gas and coal by 2030.”

Rishi Sunak, the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, condemned their actions.

“This is a disgraceful act of vandalism to one of the UK’s and the world’s oldest and most important monuments,” he said, per The Guardian.

The BBC reported that a spokeswoman for English Heritage called Wednesday’s incident “extremely upsetting,” but confirmed the site remained open to the public.

Just Stop Oil planned the demonstration ahead of the summer solstice, when crowds descend upon Stonehenge to mark the longest day of the year. 

“Stonehenge at solstice is all about celebrating the natural world — but look at the state it’s in! 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,” Lynch said in a statement to the organization. 

The student echoed similar sentiments in a video filmed before the incident and shared on X after the arrests. 

“These stones have stood here for 5,000 years. What will the world look like in 5,000 years’ time?” Lynch asked in the clip. 

Naidu also shared a statement. 

“Either we end the fossil fuel era, or the fossil fuel era will end us. Just as fifty years ago, when the world used international treaties to defuse the threats posed by nuclear weapons, today the world needs a Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty to phase out fossil fuels and to support dependent economies, workers and communities to move away from oil, gas and coal.”

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Naidu added, “The orange cornflour we used to create an eye-catching spectacle will soon wash away with the rain,” while urging the government to “sign the treaty.”