POLICE have handed out 12 fines after 100 people attended an illegal rave.

A drone video shows officers breaking up an illegal rave which took place in Chorley with an estimated 100 people present.

They were called at around 9pm on Saturday, March 6, to reports of a party in the woods between Healey Nab and White Coppice.

Though many people fled the area when officers arrived, 12 fines were issued for breaches of coronavirus regulations, two people were dealt with for drugs offences and the music equipment being used was seized.

Ch Insp Phil Hiutchinson said: “Most people are doing their bit to stop the spread of the virus so it is shocking that a minority of people still think they are exempt.

“This party was a blatant breach of the current restrictions and it is unbelievably selfish for anyone to believe they can gather in these numbers when so many law-abiding citizens have not seen their friends and family properly in almost a year.

“The people in attendance also gave no thought to the safety of the local community or the officers who had to attend to break up the gathering, not to mention the NHS which is under strain."

Threats of violence were made towards officers.

https://twitter.com/ChorleyPolice/status/1368982386453667842

Insp Hiutchinson said:“We must stress that while we are continuing to spend most of our time dealing with crime and keeping people safe, incidents like this take us away from that.

“We continue to be immensely grateful to those who are following the law and are doing their bit to keep everybody safe.

"We all want lockdown to end, and for normality to resume, and we say a huge ‘thank you’ to those working with us to make that happen.

"We are also thankful to those who reported the gathering to us, enabling us to break it up relatively early on.”

Over the course of the weekend from 7am on Friday to 5.30am on Monday, police received 529 calls about breaches of coronavirus regulations and, as a result, handed out 238 tickets, which is an increase on last weekend.

Other incidents we attended included a large party at a farm in Dunnockshaw, a group of 10 people gathering for a 30th birthday karaoke party in Walton le Dale and the poker party in Blackburn.