The perils of inviting "everyone'' to a teenage party in the modern world of social networking Web sites and radio shout-outs were dramatically illustrated over the weekend when more than 500 gatecrashers trashed a country house.
Thousands of dollars of damage was done and partygoers broke windows and tore out curtains at Georgian Colehayes Park in Devon, England, a building run as a field study center by descendants of the industrialist who first mass-produced tarpaulin.
Initially blamed on BBC Radio 1, which featured the private function on a "shout-out'' -- where listeners tell the world about cool things going on -- the chaos proved yesterday to have snowballed from an ill-advised poster hung at Torquay Grammar School. It was pinned up by Sarah Ruscoe, who invited one and all to her 18th birthday fancy dress bash, which she presided over dressed as a dominatrix.
"Little did I know almost everyone from my year would attend and what is more invite `everyone' from different schools and the surrounding area," she said ruefully, as her family struggled to cope with smashed furniture and beer-sprayed walls. "Admittedly, perhaps I was foolish and naive but how often does a poster cause chaos and devastation?"
She then provided the answer, in a world hooked together by MySpace, Facebook and school bulletin boards, as well as DJ Pete Tong on Radio 1.
"Perhaps it is when a large circle of friends, social networking sites and even the radio make communication that much more efficient," she said.
The BBC declined to apologize over the shout-out, in which Tong chattered cheerily about a party at Bovey Tracey, the Devon town close to Colehayes Park.
Carloads of teenagers then jammed the drive through Colehayes' 8 hectare park, overwhelming four bouncers, and later evading police with dogs, over a chaotic four hours.
Sarah's mother Rebecca Brooks, 54, who is considering action against the BBC, said: "It was terrifying, absolutely terrifying. The droves of people coming towards the house were frightening. It looked like we had a rock festival here."
Her husband Bill, 75, who bought the house nine years ago, said that the gatecrashers had acted "like animals," smashing furniture and windows and pelting police with glass.
A BBC spokeswoman said that Colehayes had not been identified in the shout-out
The event was already in danger of "spiraling out of control" in the last few days, Ruscoe said.
She said she had got friends to spread rumors last week that the party had been postponed.
"By the last day I felt physically ill with worry. I was dreading the night, but didn't expect it to turn out as bad as it did," she said.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese