- Hundreds of UK partygoers were fined on New Year’s Eve for breaking restrictions on coronavirus.
- The locations of the incidents included the streets of London, where a woman argued with the police while holding a glass of champagne; a church, where hundreds of partygoers threw objects at the police; houses and pubs.
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The new year came with new fines for some UK revelers who violated coronavirus blocking measures to celebrate on the streets and in not-so-clandestine locations.
According to the Guardian, police stopped celebrations in Brighton, Manchester, Leicestershire, Sheffield, Essex, London and Lancashire. Hundreds too supposedly collected on Edinburgh Castle Esplanade.
In London, in particular, a woman without a mask was seen arguing with the police while holding a glass of champagne.
“They were having tough words,” photographer Thomas Bowles told MailOnline. “The police said that she couldn’t drink in public and that she needed to go home.”
The city also hosted 58 unlicensed meetings at which 217 received notifications of fixed sentences, Sky News reported. Four were arrested in central London, the vehicle said, and a café was arrested for receiving about 50 people who smoked, watched European football and listened to music.
Meanwhile, in Manchester, more than 100 fixed penalty notices have been issued at venues including house parties, a rave and a pub.
And in Essex, hundreds of revelers gathered in a church, where they threw objects at the police. Hundreds of other people in the county partied in an abandoned warehouse and another hundred celebrated at a party at home. The host, along with a few others across the country, received a £ 10,000 fine – the equivalent of more than $ 13,000.
Some residents of England are currently under Level 3 restrictions, which prohibit people from different families from mixing indoors, and others are under Level 4 restrictions, which allow only two people to be outdoors.
Still, the majority of residents followed the rules, the police told the media.
“I’m sure the majority of our right-thinking residents will join me in condemning this irresponsible, life-threatening behavior,” said Chris Sykes, assistant chief of police for Greater Manchester, according to the Guardian.