Video circulating on social media shows climate protesters spraying orange powder onto Stonehenge, the prehistoric megalithic structure located in South West England. 

Posted by British environmental group Just Stop Oil, the footage depicts two individuals running up to the monument with canisters and spraying them on Tuesday afternoon local time. 

Several people could be heard yelling at the protesters to stop, and a man and woman were seen trying to physically restrain them from defacing the prehistoric landmark, which dates back about 5,000 years to the early Bronze Age. 

Eventually, the protesters were stopped by bystanders, however two of the monument’s massive stones were left with orange splotches. 

A Just Stop Oil press release indicates the duo were demanding that the incoming U.K. government “commit to working with other governments to agree on an equitable plan to end the extraction and burning of oil, gas and coal by 2030.” 

The protesters were identified by the group as 21-year-old Niamh Lynch, a student from Oxford, and 73-year-old Rajan Naidu of the English city of Birmingham. According to the Wiltshire Police, they were both arrested on suspicion of damaging the ancient monument.

Just Stop Oil has made headlines before when, in several different instances at museums around Europe, protesters glued themselves to artwork, including a copy of Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper” in 2022. 

The defacing of the monument comes just a day before the summer solstice; thousands flock to Stonehenge, which was built to align with the sun on the summer and winter solstices, on the longest and shortest days of the year.