A London wedding, which violated the UK blockade, was stopped by police on Thursday night, officials said.
At first, the Metropolitan Police reported that 400 people attended the wedding, but later the force revised the number to 150.
Currently, a maximum of six guests are allowed to attend wedding and civil partnership ceremonies, according to the UK coronavirus blocking guidelines. However, these ceremonies should only take place “in exceptional circumstances”, as if one of the partners had a terminal illness.
Police said they were called to London’s Stamford Hill neighborhood on Thursday night with reports of a large school meeting.
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“The group met for a wedding and took a series of measures to mask their activity, covering windows and closing gates,” the Metropolitan Police said in a statement.
Yesodey Hatorah Secondary Girls School in London’s Stamford Hill neighborhood is depicted. Police said they broke up a wedding with 150 people, despite the national blockade at the school on Thursday night. (Stefan Rousseau / PA via AP, Archive)
According to the police, the wedding planner is facing a £ 10,000 (about $ 13,685) fine and five other participants received £ 200 (about $ 274) “fixed fine notices”.
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The site was Yesodey Hatorah Senior Girls’ School, a state-funded Orthodox Jewish high school, whose principal died of coronavirus in April last year.
In a statement, the school said it was “absolutely horrified by the event last night and that it condemns it in the strongest possible terms”.
The school said its hall was rented to an outside organization and “we didn’t know the wedding was going on”.
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UK Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis also condemned the rule-breaking event.
“At a time when we are all making great sacrifices, this amounts to a blatant revocation of the responsibility to protect life and this illegal behavior is hated by the overwhelming majority of the Jewish community,” he tweeted Friday.
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Pubs, restaurants and entertainment venues in Britain are closed and people are forced to stay at home as part of the restrictions to contain a new outbreak of the virus. The UK recorded more than 95,000 deaths from COVID-19, the highest number of deaths in Europe.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.