Clash Mars Sunrise Rites at Stonehenge; 10 Hurt, 67 Arrested

Thousands of British hippies fought a pre-dawn battle with police who stopped them from marching on Stonehenge on Tuesday to celebrate sunrise on the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere.

Police said a crowd of 4,000 people, many with painted faces, hurled steel barriers and bottles at a ring of 1,000 officers guarding approaches to the Bronze Age stone circle on Salisbury plain.

Stonehenge, 60 miles southwest of London, is regarded as a spiritual home by the hippies, as they are known in Britain because of their ‘60s life style.

Ten people were injured, one seriously, and 67 people were arrested in the clash, a police spokesman said.

Attendance at the site to observe sunrise on the summer solstice had been limited to 1,000 ticket-holders by English Heritage, the government-funded group that is responsible for the preservation of Stonehenge.

A modern sect of the Secular Order of Druids is permitted to put on a small ceremony every year to mark the event. About 60 white-robed Druids performed their ritual sunrise ceremony at 4:57 a.m., culminating with the blowing of ram’s horn trumpets.

Druids, sun worshipers, and the hippies ascribe magical or mystical properties to the ancient monument, which has been largely roped off to visitors since 1978.

Stonehenge, a mysterious double circle of gigantic standing stones, is thought to have been a center for pre-Christian and astronomical worship, since the sun rises over a certain stone.

After daybreak, ranks of police drove the hippies back to their nearby woodland camps and ordered them to leave. The crowd then dispersed quietly in a convoy of cars, buses and vans.

The government condemned the violence, which hippie spokesmen blamed on a small group of troublemakers.

There have been clashes at Stonehenge during the summer solstice ceremonies for the last three years.