Hippies Clash With Police at Stonehenge Rite
AMESBURY, England — Vagabonds, or “hippies,†clashed with police before dawn today as a crowd of 4,000 tried to reach the ancient Stonehenge monument to celebrate the summer solstice.
Police said about 70 people were arrested and 10 were injured after the crowd pelted police with stones, bottles and other debris in an attempt to break police lines around the site. The injured included eight policemen and two hippies.
The estimated 4,000 vagabonds were quickly driven back by the 1,000 riot police carrying shields and truncheons and later obeyed police orders to move off an illegal camping site nearby.
The arrests were made about an hour before 60 white-robed, modern-day Druid sun worshipers celebrated the summer solstice, the longest day of the year, with a ritual sunrise ceremony at Stonehenge at 4:47 a.m.
The ceremony at the 4,000-year-old site culminated with the blowing of rams’ horn trumpets.
The government-funded English Heritage, which manages the site, said the vagabonds had earlier this week refused an offer of 1,100 tickets to attend the ceremony under escort.
Stonehenge is a mysterious double circle of gigantic standing stones set in Salisbury Plain about 80 miles southwest of London. It is thought to have been a center for pre-Christian and astronomical worship, since the sun rises over a certain stone.
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