Report: U.K.'s DOWNLOAD Festival Ends With Violence

June 12, 2006

BBC News is reporting that about a dozen people have been detained by police after trouble broke out at the Download Festival at Donington Park, England Sunday night (June 11).

Leicestershire Police were called to the site of the festival on Sunday after reports of fires being started.

When officers arrived, missiles were thrown at them while they tried to control the situation. No one was seriously hurt.

Some of those detained could face charges of assault and criminal damage.

Police had earlier praised festival-goers and organisers for the well-run event as only four arrests had been reported until the violence on Sunday night.

Superintendent Les Milner from Leicestershire Police appealed for anyone who may have taken pictures or footage of the attacks on their mobile phones to get in touch.

"The disorder involved a number of people and it is not clear at this early stage what sparked the trouble," he told the BBC News.

Milner said investigations were ongoing and police were collecting witness statements from people still on the site.

Headline act GUNS N' ROSES closed the three-day festival which was attended by about 75,000 people.

The band's last appearance at the festival in 1988 ended in trouble when a crowd of 107, 000 people surged towards the stage, crushing two fans to death.

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