A Clapham security guard has described the moment he was forced to lock customers inside the store as mobs of feral youths ran wild.

The Metropolitan Police warned of more Easter holiday ‘linkups’ as teens tore through south London once again on Tuesday evening with terrified families barricaded inside high street stores in the latest wave of chaos.

Clips circulating on social media showed crowds of children gathering in the neighbourhood, terrorising locals and forcing shops to close.

Police vehicles could be seen desperately trying to move through the throng of rioters who took to the streets in broad daylight on Tuesday afternoon, responding to a social media trend encouraging teens to ‘linkup’ en masse. 

The force confirmed two teenage girls were arrested on suspicion of assaulting an emergency worker, and a dispersal order has been put in place.

Marks and Spencer on the high street – which was looted by a similar flash mob over the weekend leading to two arrests – shut early amid fears of a further raid on its aisles.

And a security guard working for the supermarket told the Daily Mail he had to lock shoppers in for a short while, before gradually allowing them to be escorted out by officers. 

Mohammed said: ‘Police warned us there would be chaos so we prepared for it because of what happened last Saturday.

‘There were loads of kids sprinting and shouting and police advised all the shops to close for one hour.’

He added the supermarket decided instead to just close for the day and not reopen, but some shoppers remained inside. 

‘Police knew roughly the time today,’ he said. ‘They said it would start at around 4pm so they were here since midday. But the chaos happened at 7pm.

‘We had to lock shoppers in, at 8.15pm we let them out one by one with police and and security holding the doors shut and escorting them out.

‘Shoppers were very scared. There was one lady with a pram and a baby. She was terrified but police escorted her to safety.’

Mohammed added that the rioters targeted a branch of Boot’s which was not as well prepared for the chaos as other shops.

Meanwhile, a local Waitrose also closed its doors, sticking a ‘police advised’ closure notice onto its front door, and Boot’s was targeted ‘very badly’, according to witnesses.

Further videos showed large groups of balaclava-clad youths gathering outside a McDonald’s restaurant in the area as marked and unmarked police cars raced to the scene.

And families were reportedly ‘barricaded’ inside a local Sainsbury’s as teenagers, many of whom dressed in all black, claimed control of the busy high street. 

Both McDonald’s and Sainsbury’s were forced to shut before their scheduled time amid the mob disruption.

By 10.30pm, the commotion had died down with police able to disperse a majority of the participants.

Employees at local shops said they were ‘scared’ as chaos reigned along the heaving road with cars coming to a standstill and commuters ducking for cover, or opting to film the scene using their smartphones. 

Fires were spotted burning on the fields of Clapham Common as police swooped in to extinguish them, sending smoke billowing into the air.

Dozens of officers broke into the huge crowd of teens in a bid to disperse the mob, but most of the participants appeared to hold their ground. 

The riot raged on into the evening with around 60 teenagers facing off with police attempting to disperse participants.

Officers arrived in four vehicles, including two vans, to separate a group gathering outside the Common’s basketball courts but many teens simply dashed past them while others shouted jibes at cops as they walked past.

Lime bikes lay scattered across the ground and a stench of cannabis hung in the air as youths gathered into intimidatingly large groups both on the street and in the park. 

‘It felt like Notting Hill carnival,’ the security guard said. ‘I’ve only seen something similar happen during the carnival when I worked at the Notting Hill branch.’

An employee at Roosters Spot chicken shop said: ‘Police told us to shut our shop and after we reopened we were warned not to let any kids come in today.

‘We were scared because we heard groups of 10 to 15 of them were coming into shops, running about, picking up trays and smashing stuff at walls.’

A spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police said: ‘Police are responding to an ongoing incident on Clapham High Street following reports of a large crowd of young people causing anti-social behaviour.

‘Officers are on the scene, and a dispersal order has been put in place, meaning anyone congregating must leave the area.

‘At this time two teenage girls have been arrested on suspicion of assaulting an emergency worker. They have been taken to custody.

‘Officers will remain in the area to offer support and respond to any concerns from local residents and businesses.’

It comes after a mass ‘linkup’ that saw a wild mob of youths run riot in a M&S store and terrorise the streets of Clapham on Saturday was arranged in advance online on yet another day in Lawless London.

Police were forced to issue a dispersal order and two 16-year-old girls and one 15-year-old girl were arrested for shoplifting and assault during the crazed gathering of over 100 teenagers. 

Footage posted on social media showed police officers watching on as an army of feral youngsters stormed through the supermarket.

Officers attempted to control the frenzied crowd as they shoved each other while running down the frozen food aisle before a brawl broke out that left one girl in tears.

Other videos showed them running through the high street squealing and shouting as confused onlookers stood frozen in fear.

They also ambushed other shops in the area, including a Sainsbury’s where a young girl was filmed hitting a police officer and another seen running out of the shop and away from officers. 

Videos and comments from teenagers who attended suggest the meet-up was arranged on social media with many calling it ‘the Clapham courts linkup’ and others simply referring to it as ‘Clapham courts’ or ‘courts’.

‘I was gonna go but none of my friends wanted to go,’ said one comment.

The chaotic scenes took place on the first day of the Easter holidays as it raised concerns that this might happen again while Britain’s youth is away from school. 

Another video showing two girls smiling and dancing at home seemed to be referencing tonight’s second ‘linkup’ with a caption reading: ‘How we feel knowing it’s gonna be live at Clapham Courts on Tuesday.’

Footage showed Saturday’s large gathering initially meeting up at Clapham Common netball and basketball courts before spilling out on to the streets as the atmosphere became increasingly chaotic.

A clip of the incident has since gone viral on social media, with viewers branding the ordeal yet another example of lawless London.

A Met Police spokesperson said of Saturday’s mob incident: ‘Tackling shoplifting and anti-social behaviour continues to be a priority for the Met, and we’re doing more to take action against offenders and support local businesses.

‘This proactive approach saw a 44 per cent increase in arrests last year, while shoplifting across London fell by four per cent.

‘At around 16:45hrs on Saturday, 28 March, police responded to reports of a group of around 100 young people causing anti-social behaviour and stealing from a number of businesses on Clapham High Street.

‘Officers imposed a dispersal order and made three arrests. Three girls, two aged 16 and one 15-year-old girl, were arrested for shoplifting and assault. They have since been bailed.’

President Donald Trump’s $400 million White House ballroom project was temporarily halted Tuesday by a federal judge. 

The National Trust for Historic Preservation had sued the Trump administration after the destruction last fall of the White House’s East Wing. 

The preservation group had most recently argued in court that Trump needed Congressional approval before making such major changes to the White House.  

U.S. District Judge Richard Leon wrote in his decision that no statute ‘comes close’ to giving the President the authority to take on the project without Congressional oversight. 

‘The President of the United States is the steward of the White House for future generations of First Families. He is not, however, the owner!’ Leon wrote.

Leon approved the Trust’s request to have work stopped on the ballroom project amid the legal fight. 

He gave a two-week grace period for the implementation of his order and said construction could continue on portions of the project relevant to the security of the White House. 

‘It is not too late for Congress to authorize the continued construction of the ballroom project,’ he wrote. ‘The President may at any time go to Congress to obtain express authority to construct a ballroom and to do so with private funds.’ 

The judge, an appointee of Republican President George W. Bush, previously said he believed his decision would be appealed and the case could end up in the Supreme Court.

It was, with the White House appealing the case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. 

‘President Trump clearly has the legal authority to modernize, renovate, and beautify the White House – just like all of his predecessors did. We will immediately appeal this egregious decision and are confident we will prevail,’ spokesperson Davis Ingle told the Daily Mail in a statement. 

The President had responded to the news Tuesday with a furious Truth Social post.

In it, he labeled the National Trust for Historic Preservation a ‘Radical Left Group of Lunatics.’

He then bemoaned how the White House ballroom and his takeover of the Kennedy Center have been the subject of lawsuits, but not the Federal Reserve headquarters renovations nor California Governor Gavin Newsom’s ‘RAILROAD TO NOWHERE.’ 

‘So, the White House Ballroom, and The Trump Kennedy Center, which are under budget, ahead of schedule, and will be among the most magnificent Buildings of their kind anywhere in the World, gets sued by a group that was cut off by Government years ago, but all of the many DISASTERS in our Country are left alone to die,’ Trump posted. ‘Doesn’t make much sense, does it?’ 

The National Trust for Historic Preservation is a Congressionally chartered organization that was funded by the federal government for 30 years after the passage of the National Historic Preservation Act. 

It now lives off private donations.   

The group cheered Leon’s decision in a statement.

‘We are pleased with Judge Leon’s ruling today to order a halt to any further ballroom construction until the Administration complies with the law and obtains express authorization to go forward,’ said Carol Quillen, the president and CEO of the National Trust for Historic Preservation. 

‘This is a win for the American people on a project that forever impacts one of the most beloved and iconic places in our nation,’ she added.

The Trust sued the Trump administration in December after the East Wing had already been turned to rubble and the White House had refused to ensure proper government oversight of the project. 

Trump had argued that approvals weren’t necessary due to the project being completely funded by private donations.

The East Wing demolition had been a shock to many, as neither Trump nor White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt had been fully transparent about the plans to tear down the area commonly used to house the offices of the First Lady.

Before the ballroom project began, Trump appointed his Staff Secretary, Will Scharf, to head the National Capital Planning Commission, one of the two panels that generally signs off on federal construction projects in the region. 

Scharf said the NCPC doesn’t oversee demolitions, allowing the East Wing destruction to go unchallenged. 

The Trust pushed the Trump administration to go through the traditional review processes used for these types of projects.

However Trump had stacked the NCPC and the Commission of Fine Arts, the other review group, with aides and allies. 

In February, the Commission of Fine Arts, which commissioners include the President’s 26-year-old executive assistant, fast-tracked the ballroom’s approval without viewing the final design. 

On Thursday, the NCPC is expected to do the same thing during the group’s April meeting. 

In March, dozens of experts and citizens testified to NCPC commissioners over Zoom about the project.

Only one person, in hours of testimony, talked about it positively.

Architects, preservationists and average Americans called it ‘ugly’ and complained about its immense size. 

TikTok mobs are running wild in Clapham once again with terrified families barricaded inside high street stores in the latest wave of Easter holiday chaos.

Clips circulating on social media see crowds of feral teens tearing through the neighbourhood in south London, terrorising locals and forcing shops to close.

Police vehicles could be seen desperately trying to move through the throng of rioters who took to the streets in broad daylight on Tuesday afternoon, responding to a TikTok trend which has been encouraging teens to ‘linkup’ en masse. 

Witnesses claim the Marks and Spencer on the high street – which was looted by a similar flash mob over the weekend leading to two arrests – has shut early amid fears of a further raid on its aisles, while a local Waitrose has also apparently closed its doors.

Further videos showed large groups of young people dressed in black gathering outside a McDonald’s restaurant in the area as marked and unmarked police cars raced to the scene.

And families reportedly remain ‘barricaded’ inside a local Sainsbury’s as youths continue to claim control of the busy high street. 

Chaos reigned along the heaving road with cars coming to a standstill and commuters ducking for cover, or opting to film the scene using their smartphones. 

Fires were spotted burning on the fields of Clapham Common as police swooped in to extinguish them, sending smoke billowing into the air.

Dozens of officers broke into the huge crowd of teens in a bid to disperse the mob, but most of the participants appeared to hold their ground. 

The Daily Mail has approached the Metropolitan Police for comment. 

It comes after a mass ‘linkup’ that saw a wild mob of youths run riot in a M&S store and terrorise the streets of Clapham on Saturday was arranged in advance online on yet another day in Lawless London.

Police were forced to issue a dispersal order and two 16-year-old girls and one 15-year-old girl were arrested for shoplifting and assault during the crazed gathering of over 100 teenagers. 

Footage posted on social media showed police officers watching on as an army of feral youngsters stormed through the supermarket.

Officers attempted to control the frenzied crowd as they shoved each other while running down the frozen food aisle before a brawl broke out that left one girl in tears.

Other videos showed them running through the high street squealing and shouting as confused onlookers stood frozen in fear.

They also ambushed other shops in the area, including a Sainsbury’s where a young girl was filmed hitting a police officer and another seen running out of the shop and away from officers. 

Videos and comments on TikTok from teenagers who attended suggest the meet-up was arranged on social media with many calling it ‘the Clapham courts linkup’ and others simply referring to it as ‘Clapham courts’ or ‘courts’.

‘I was gonna go but none of my friends wanted to go,’ said one comment.

The chaotic scenes took place on the first day of the Easter holidays as it raised concerns that this might happen again while Britain’s youth is off school. 

Another video shows two girls smiling and dancing at home, seems to be referencing a second ‘linkup’ with a caption reading: ‘How we feel knowing it’s gonna be live at Clapham Courts on Tuesday.’

Footage shows the large gathering initially meeting up at Clapham Common netball and basketball courts before spilling out on to the streets as the atmosphere became increasingly chaotic.

Footage of the incident has since gone viral on social media, with viewers branding the ordeal yet another example of lawless London.

A Met Police spokesperson said of Saturday’s mob incident: ‘Tackling shoplifting and anti-social behaviour continues to be a priority for the Met, and we’re doing more to take action against offenders and support local businesses.

‘This proactive approach saw a 44 per cent increase in arrests last year, while shoplifting across London fell by four per cent.

‘At around 16:45hrs on Saturday, 28 March, police responded to reports of a group of around 100 young people causing anti-social behaviour and stealing from a number of businesses on Clapham High Street.

‘Officers imposed a dispersal order and made three arrests. Three girls, two aged 16 and one 15-year-old girl, were arrested for shoplifting and assault. They have since been bailed.’

Hegseth – We know what Russia and China are doing for Iran

Crime on London’s public transport network has risen by almost 50 per cent since the pandemic – with ‘unacceptable’ levels of violence against women and girls, according to a devastating new report.

The London Assembly’s Police and Crime Committee has published a new report that suggests people are increasingly anxious about using buses, Tubes and trains to get across the capital for fear of falling victim to crime.

Around 48,000 crimes were reported across Transport for London (TfL) services in 2025 – up 46 per cent against a pre-pandemic average of 16,544.

The figure was released as part of a new report examining the capital’s approach to tackling spiralling rates of violence against women and girls (VAWG) and hate crime across the transport network, which the committee found ‘unacceptable’.

Its findings are calamitous for London’s transport and policing bodies and for Mayor of London Sadiq Khan: the committee’s chair, Marina Ahmad, said that while she expected ‘to find a problem, what we found was a crisis’.

Seven in 10 Londoners are choosing not to travel, or not to travel at certain times of the day, ‘because they were worried about their personal security’, Tricia Hayes of London TravelWatch told the committee.

This may go some way to explaining why, as official TfL statistics suggest, passenger journeys fell by 2.4 per cent in the second half of 2025.

Transport and policing authorities say they are responding to the challenge – but politicians say more needs to be done.

Siwan Hayward, TfL’s Director of Security, Policing and Enforcement, said: ‘The safety of everyone using the transport network is an absolute priority for us.

‘We have a strong police and enforcement presence on our services and in our stations to prevent crime and are determined to continue working together to make the transport network a hostile place for offenders. 

‘We welcome the committee’s report and will be responding to the recommendations in due course.’ 

Between 2023 and 2025, crimes reported on the Underground rose 12.5 per cent, while they rose 60.4 on the newest part of the network, the Elizabeth Line, and rose 15 per cent on the Overground.

Offences dipped three percent on buses, 2.7 per cent on the Docklands Light Railway and 40 per cent on Trams in the same time period. 

Violence, public disorder and criminal damage are on the rise, while thefts are down. Overall, crime on the network has risen almost eight percent in the last three years alone.

Sadiq Khan has previously sought to characterise the level of crime on London’s public transport network as ‘very low level…when you compare it to the [number of] journeys that are made’.

He told the London Assembly last year: ‘One victim of crime is one too many, but I want to reassure Londoners that the risk of being a victim or of witnessing a crime in London remains low.’ 

But Susan Hall, who is deputy chair of the committee and leader of the London Conservatives, told the Daily Mail today: ‘Violence on public transport is rising significantly since Covid, and the Mayor of London is doing little to tackle it.

‘Posters telling people not to be abusive will not stop attacks – enforcement of the law, robust security, and a zero-tolerance policy is the only way we are going to keep Londoners safe during their commute. 

‘His priorities are all wrong, and we’re at risk as a result.’

A spokesperson for the Mayor said today: ‘Nothing is more important to the Mayor than keeping Londoners safe, and he is clear that no one should have to feel scared or vulnerable on public transport or anywhere in the capital.

‘Sadiq has invested over £277million to tackle the epidemic of violence against women and girls in all its forms, and dedicated a record £16million – more than any other Mayor – to tackle hate crime and intolerance in all its guises. 

‘But there is more work to do and the Mayor will be stepping up collective action with TfL, Met Police and other partners to ensure our transport network is inclusive, safe and welcoming as we continue building a safer, fairer, better London for everyone.’

The report focuses on efforts to tackle hate crime and violence against women and girls (VAWG). Of all public transport crime reports in 2025 almost a fifth, 4,593, related to VAWG and another 1,724 were incidents of hate crime.

Only a handful of incidents ever led to a charge, and a suspect was not identified in 58 per cent and 66 per cent of VAWG and hate crime incidents respectively.

The true number of incidents is likely to be higher: people are not thought to come forward to report them because they do not trust authorities to act. London TravelWatch estimates as many as 80 per cent of incidents go unreported.

Just last week, a serial predator who sexually assaulted four women at London Underground and mainline stations last year was jailed.

Craig Anderson, 38, approached lone women before asking for their phone numbers and attacking them. 

Prosecutors described him as a man who ‘did not take no for an answer’, while police said he smirked throughout his interview and refused to answer questions. He is now serving a 22 month sentence.

In January, Stanislaw Pozniecki was jailed after approaching a sleeping woman on a Jubilee Line train and assaulting her, before offering her £20 to sleep with him. 

He followed her off the Underground train at Wembley Park where he was met by police – where he seemed more concerned with missing the last train than the fact he had been arrested. He was jailed for four years.

Incidents of violence and harassment are often filmed and shared on social media. 

A video was published earlier this month showing a group of foul-mouthed teenagers who refused to stop vaping on an Elizabeth Line train – sparking a brawl that spilled out onto the platform.

A teenage girl in the group who was asked not to smoke on the train told a male passenger to ‘f*** off’ before the altercation turned physical. The BTP is investigating.

Almost half of travellers – 45 per cent – say they’re either ‘very’ or ‘fairly’ worried about being harassed while commuting, and more than half say they have little to no confidence in TfL, the Met and the BTP to take action.

It recently prompted a campaigner to call for the return of ‘ladies only’ carriages as seen in the early days of the railways.

In a nod to the British Transport Police’s oft-repeated slogan, Camille Brown quipped in her online petition to TfL: ‘We always see it, we do say it, but it’s still not sorted’.

The Assembly committee has recommended TfL, the BTP and the Metropolitan Police establish a joint rapid response task force for hate crime and VAWG incidents as they happen, and to publish an annual survey on how it responds to those types of crime.

Commander Clair Kelland, public protection lead for the Met, said in a statement to the Mail that the force was training officers in how to better respond to VAWG incidents.

‘As this report highlights there is more to be done to make women feel safer on transport in London, which is why we will continue to work closely with TfL, BTP and local partners,’ she added.

The BTP said tackling hate crime and VAWG remained its ‘top priority’.

A spokesperson said: ‘We know that reporting crime needs to be easy and discreet, and we’re proud of our text 61016 service which allows passengers to report crime to us discreetly and for free.

‘Last year we received a 20 per cent increase in reports, showing us that more passengers know how to report crime to us and have the confidence to do so, knowing they will be believed and taken seriously.’

TfL launched a new campaign encouraging people to ‘act like a friend’ and intervene in incidents where it is safe to do so. It launched a dedicated taskforce to tackle hate crime and VAWG last year.

It comes after a BBC investigation found that the British Transport Police is struggling to identify sex offenders because of faulty or non-existent CCTV cameras.

Of 562 investigations into alleged sex offences reported in 2025 involving CCTV evidence, 250 either had no CCTV available, or was of unusable quality.

Donald Trump has launched another rant at the UK for its stance on his war in Iran, saying the US ‘won’t be there to help you anymore’.

The president called on countries that are struggling to obtain jet fuel to ‘build up some delayed courage’ and risk Iranian attacks by sending ships through the Strait of Hormuz.

Trump is under increasing pressure from rising global fuel prices as a direct result of the Iran war, which he launched alongside Israel at the end of February.

Writing on his Truth Social platform, he said: ‘All of those countries that can’t get jet fuel because of the Strait of Hormuz, like the United Kingdom, which refused to get involved in the decapitation of Iran, I have a suggestion for you: Number 1, buy from the U.S., we have plenty, and Number 2, build up some delayed courage, go to the Strait, and just TAKE IT.

‘You’ll have to start learning how to fight for yourself, the U.S.A. won’t be there to help you anymore, just like you weren’t there for us.

‘Iran has been, essentially, decimated. The hard part is done. Go get your own oil!’

According to the Financial Times, analysts and industry consultants believe British airlines will start to be hit by a jet fuel shortage at the end of April if pressures on the supply chain continue.

It is expected that the last known shipment from the Middle East will arrive in the UK this week.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is holding his second Cobra meeting in two weeks as his government scrambles to handle the impact of the war on the UK’s cost of living.

He has drawn Trump’s ire by taking an increasingly vocal stance against the US, telling a crowd at his local election campaign launch yesterday: ‘This is not our war and we are not going to be dragged into it.’

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.

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Two Canadian astronauts are set to play important roles in getting NASA back to the moon if all goes well this week.

Jeremy Hansen and Jenni Gibbons are members of the Artemis II mission, a 10-day lunar fly-around and the first crewed mission to the moon since the Apollo missions more than 50 years ago.

Hansen, 50, of London, Ont., will serve as the mission specialist and become the first non-American to travel beyond low Earth orbit. He will be joined by veteran NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch aboard the Orion spacecraft.

Gibbons, 37, of Calgary, Alta., will serve as Hansen’s backup in the unlikely event he can’t fly; she has gone through years of the same training as those on the rocket and during the mission Gibbons will serve as a voice link to space from Earth.

NASA has targeted an April 1 launch for Artemis II, with a six-day launch window running through April 6.

Here is what you need to know about Hansen and Gibbons:

Hansen’s journey into aviation began at the age of 12 when he joined the 614 Royal Canadian Air Cadet Squadron in London, his biography on the Canadian Space Agency’s website reads.

He eventually earned his pilot licenses and wings and graduated from the Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston, Ont., in 1999.

Between 2004 and 2009, Hansen served as a CF-18 fighter pilot with the 441 Tactical Fighter Squadron and the 409 Tactical Fighter Squadron, as well as the combat operations officer at 4 Wing Operations, where his responsibilities included effectiveness of NORAD operations, deployed exercises and Arctic flying operations.

Hansen, who achieved the rank of colonel, was recruited into the Canadian Space Agency in 2009; he graduated from astronaut candidate training in 2011, and six years later, he became the first Canadian to lead a NASA training astronaut class.

Three years ago, he was assigned to Artemis II as a mission specialist; the objective of the mission is to test Orion’s systems, perform various science and operational tasks, conduct a lunar flyby and take photos of the moon’s surface before returning to Earth.

While the commander and pilot will take care of the launch and landing operations, the whole crew will split all the other operations, the Canadian Space Agency said.

A decade ago, Gibbons was working as an assistant professor in internal combustion engines at the University of Cambridge. She was recruited into the Canadian Space Agency just a year later and graduated in 2020.

That same year, she managed the Mission Control Capcom Console as International Space Station Lead Capcom and supported the on-orbit crew and their families during Expedition 63, the Canadian Space Agency said.

In 2022, she was assigned to mentor the 2021 astronaut class through their spacewalk training and was named Hansen’s backup on Artemis II a year later.

During the mission, Gibbons will be part of a team coaching Hansen and the other astronauts on key mission objectives.

The Canadian Space Agency added Gibbons will be a key contributor to defining and validating crew training requirements and processes for future moon missions. Gibbons will also train to act as a capcom (capsule communicator) to support future missions to the moon and as an astronaut support person, who buckles the crew into Orion and prepares them for launch.

Once the Artemis II mission is complete, Artemis III will test rendezvous and docking capabilities between Orion and commercial spacecraft needed to land astronauts on the moon.

NASA is scheduled to announce specifics on the Artemis III mission design and crew closer to launch in 2027; it plans on returning humans to the lunar surface in early 2028 as part of Artemis IV.

— With files from The Canadian Press

&copy 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.

To travel down the steep and winding road leading to Pennan is to descend into a time between times.

Tucked up hard against towering red sandstone cliffs, a tangle of mostly whitewashed houses are strung out like fresh laundry along the Aberdeenshire coastal village’s single street.

Even visiting in the early spring sunshine, the buildings brace themselves for the constant battering from stiff winds and pounding seas.

The cliffs they cling to for protection are a treacherous friend, casting gloom and year-round damp over neighbouring properties. Winters are harsh, landslips are common.

Surrounded by nature’s hostility, life somehow endures. A dwindling band of inhabitants are still drawn to set up home in this stunningly beautiful spot despite the many hardships.

It doesn’t take long to navigate the place. At one end is the 19th-century harbour, a reminder of Pennan’s centuries-old story as a once thriving fishing port, sustaining 300 people at its height.

A five-minute walk brings you to the far end of the crescent-shaped bay and the brightly painted village hall – rebuilt from a First World War aerodrome accommodation hut.

Halfway along is the famous red telephone box and the Pennan Inn opposite, both instantly familiar to fans of Scottish director Bill Forsyth’s gentle 1983 comedy, Local Hero.

In the film, Pennan doubles for the fictional Highland community of Ferness, where residents seek to cash in on a US oil giant’s desire to buy their village – unaware that the Americans plan to wipe it out and build an enormous oil terminal in its place. 

Down the years, this tight huddle of 50 or so dwellings has assumed many different roles – some illusory, others long buried by history.

But that storied past is intruding like never before into its present.

For Pennan is a conservation village, a status bestowed on areas of ‘special architectural or historical interest, the character or appearance of which it is desirable to preserve or enhance’.

It comes with a welter of strict heritage rules, which are subject to a review by Aberdeenshire Council – the planning authority tasked with producing ‘specific guidance’ for Pennan and the more than 30 other conservation areas in its domain.

In its appraisal, the council describes Pennan as having ‘one of the most distinctive and recognisable views in Aberdeenshire’.

Homeowners’ views of the consultation document are less admiring – conservation red tape has left them feeling like they are ‘living in a museum’, trapped in an unrealistic cartoonish yesteryear over which they have little control.

Indeed, so fed up are they with what they regard as often costly and nonsensical conservation guidelines, that they have taken the unusual step of trying to de-designate their village’s conservation status.

‘They talk about conservation, but who’s it being conserved for exactly?’ said Shona Stephen, 53, one of just eight full-time residents. ‘We want more people living in the village, to boost the community, and if you’re not allowed to do things to the houses, the young crowd particularly won’t come as they want the modern conveniences of life.

‘Yes, the houses are old and we need to look after them, but why do we need wrought-iron guttering and wooden single- glazed windows?’

Ms Stephen also runs the Coastal Cuppie food shack at the harbour. On cold March days, she uses the village hall as a pop-up space where she serves up wonderful home baking.

She had to ‘jump through hoops’ to open the shack, forced to swap the original bright blue shed with bunting for a smaller one the size of ‘traditional’ Pennan sheds.

‘They wanted it creosoted black. Why? Nothing else is here,’ Ms Stephen said

There were further restrictions over shutters because it had ‘to look like a shed not like a business’. Even though it was clearly a business? ‘This is what you’re up against,’ she added.

‘They want tourism, they want folk to visit, but you’ve to keep everything looking like it was in nineteen-oatcake.’

Conservation areas were first introduced by the Civic Amenities Act 1967 and Pennan received its designation ten years later, but no specific guidance was ever written for it.

The council’s proposed new rulebook lays out strict planning rules for changes or repairs to safeguard the village’s ‘unique and remarkable’ character.

It details examples of bad practice around the village – uPVC gutters and downpipes are ‘not suitable’ and should be replaced with cast-iron alternatives ‘in keeping with the character of the historic settlement’.

Other unacceptable modern upgrades include uPVC windows, oversized box dormers and large roof lights. Fixtures such as satellite dishes and solar panels would also be frowned upon, it notes, were there any in Pennan.

People have been caught out placing the wrong colour and style of tiles on the roof, while even the village grit bin has been found to be ‘not complementary to the character and appearance of the conservation area’.

But it is not always clear which Pennan the conservation lobby is trying to preserve. The present village is a hotchpotch of change.

The harbour dates to the 19th century before fishing boats became too big to use it, while much of the present layout dates to after the devastating ‘Great Storm of 1953’ which washed away nearly all the buildings on the bankhead by the shore. Other modifications are more recent.

‘The houses were never whitewashed before, you know, that’s quite a new thing,’ said Ms Stephen. ‘It was just after Local Hero that they thought, “Make it look pretty”.’

The movie, which starred Burt Lancaster, Denis Lawson, Peter Capaldi and Fulton Mackay, sparked a programme of improvements in the late 1980s, including the burying of power lines and the retention of the red phone box. A modern anomaly, but a key tourist draw.

‘It is a fabulous thing because I’ve got a business from the tourist trade on the back of the film,’ said Ms Stephen, but she added: ‘We don’t want to live in a museum. We want to be able to maintain our houses and be able to afford to maintain them.’

Maintaining porous sandstone buildings built beside a damp cliff-face is a full-time task, requiring them to be heated year- round. Ms Stephen’s home had been lying empty for four years when she bought it and it took her two years to dry it out.

‘There’s no mains gas here, so it’s expensive storage heaters for us, which costs around £300-400 a month for electricity.

‘Somebody installed one of those air source heat pumps but it lasted two years. The salt killed it. Salt kills everything here.’

In January, it emerged that a couple restoring a cottage roof face the prospect of tearing off all their new slates after it was found they did not match the old red pantiles. The work, which was necessary to make the house watertight, was carried out without planning permission.

The couple now face an anxious wait for retrospective approval.

For retired second homeowner Alistair Mackenzie, 73, it is evidence that the focus is all wrong.

‘I’m not proposing a building free-for-all, but I think there are enough controls within planning legislation to control that anyway,’ he said.

‘I want a sustainability plan, not a conservation plan, something that looks to the future, to protect Pennan for future generations, not something that looks backwards in the rear-view mirror to 1953. Because that’s the time-stamp on the current conservation document – the Great Storm of ’53 – and most of us weren’t born then.

‘There are significant threats to Pennan and they come from its geographic location – from the sea to the north and the potential for overtopping and flooding and whatever, and from the cliffs to the south, where we’ve seen some recent instability again in the cliffs.

‘These are the major risk elements to Pennan and meanwhile we are talking about plastic guttering and plastic windows and the size of skylights and what kind of tiles are on the roofs. That to me is just completely wrong-headed.’

The last major landslip happened on August 6, 2007, when a prolonged period of heavy rainfall brought hundreds of tonnes of mud and rock crashing down between Nos 18 and 53, leading to the evacuation by lifeboat of all residents while major stabilisation works had to carried out.

Evidence of the latest slippage a fortnight ago can clearly be seen behind homes in the middle of the village.

‘People love the chocolate-box, picture-postcard image of Pennan – it does look stunning and I don’t want to see that disappear. People who know me know I am very protective of Pennan,’ added Mr Mackenzie.

‘But the conservation argument really pales into insignificance with the challenges that Pennan could face in the future if some of the major risk events are not addressed.’

If they are not addressed, he argues, there may be little left to conserve. ‘God forbid, if there’s a major erosion of the cliff again, that could wipe out properties completely,’ he added.

‘We need to look at what are the major risk events and plastic guttering is not going to threaten the village. We need to protect Pennan by looking forward 50 years, not back half a century.’ There is recent precedent for de-designation. Planners have recommended that Aberchirder, also in Aberdeenshire, should lose its conservation status after it was found its historic core was no longer worthy of designation.

However, Mr Mackenzie admitted Pennan would face an uphill fight as heritage watchdog Historic Environment Scotland would likely object.

Others lament the conservationists’ emphasis on preserving ‘a perceived idea of a fishing village’ when they made site visits.

‘Well, a fishing village would have had boats and creels and nets and things,’ said Fiona McRae, who runs a photography business, SunshineNShadows. ‘That’s gone, not because of a decline in the fishing industry but an increase in boat size which has made this harbour unsuitable – it’s only leisure craft that come now.

‘So this is, dare I say it, the sanitised version of a fishing village. And one of the built heritage guys said we should have single glazing and I asked him if he had ever been here in the winter. His answer was, “It must be exciting”.’

Ms McRae plays a brief clip on her phone of recent bad weather.

It looks more unnerving than exciting with seawater flooding the street. Many houses have flood-boards protecting their front doors and preventing water from simply pouring inside.

‘Does me living in an 18th century village mean I have to have 18th century standards, or can it be brought into the 21st century and made suitable for modern life?’ she asked. ‘We are blessed with really good broadband, so there’s no reason why people couldn’t move here and work remotely.

‘And we have community events and get-togethers and we’ll have our annual screening of Local Hero in September followed by a ceilidh.

‘We are trying to live in the 21st century, but they are harking back to how it used to be – and yet, it looks nothing like it used to be.’

Ms McRae added: ‘If we lost conservation status, what would happen to the village?

‘Would it be any worse? We would still maintain our homes; between the cliffs and the sea, there’s nowhere for builders to develop.’

One ‘developer’ is David McRobbie, who is renovating the only stone house left by the Great Storm on the bankhead.

Like many second homers, he has a strong familial connection to Pennan, tracing his roots back to the 1700s with links to all the village’s three main families – the Watts, the Gatts and the Wests.

It used to be the old bakehouse but was turned into a home by a relative about 40 years ago. Mr McRobbie and his wife Karen, both 60, have stripped it back to bare walls.

It’s a labour of love and they are trying to do everything by the book, but there are compromises. No one makes the original roof tiles any more and even they have replaced a small window overlooking the sea with a small uPVC double- glazed unit.

‘If I put in single-glazing, it would probably crack when the first wave hit it, as they bring up stones as well,’ he said. ‘I wanted a composite front door too, more to make the house watertight at high water. When it’s blowing a gale, the house gets an awful pounding.’

In the end, he opted for a wooden door, but was lucky to find a skilled joiner to make it for him: ‘There’s nobody leaving school to be joiners. I’m doing all the liming of the walls myself too, but it’s trial and error – I’m learning it all off YouTube videos.’ Conservation, he says, simply assumes the skills and money are there to sustain our heritage.

Nevertheless, Mr McRobbie is more exercised by the requirement to pay double council tax on his second home. ‘If they want us to live in the past, maybe we can pay the poll tax from the 1950s too,’ joked his wife. ‘I’d be up for that,’ he added.

‘Anyway, it’s not just about the bricks and mortar for us. We have history and connections to this place and it’s for my children and grandchildren and to maintain a link.’

Leaving Pennan, a last look back captures a rogue wave crashing right over the old bakehouse, and for an instant, the property disappears from view, just as its neighbours did in the Great Storm.

Even conservationists cannot legislate for nature. Or, as Burns declared: ‘Nature’s mighty law is change.’

The family of a 16-year-old girl who was killed in what was said to be a row over a boy have paid tribute to their ‘princess’.

Chloe Watson Dransfield was found with fatal injuries in Kennerleigh Avenue, Austhorpe, Leeds at 6am on Saturday.

The teenager was said to have been stabbed in the back in a dispute over a boy, according to family and neighbours.

A fifth teenager, a 17-year-old boy, was arrested on suspicion of murder on Monday after four others were held over the weekend.

In a statement, her family said: ‘My beautiful princess Chloe. I cannot put into words how I feel that you are not here with me.

‘You are my life, my world, my best friend and I know that I am yours. I cannot live without you – I need you.

‘You are stunning, confident, loyal, honest and my family-oriented princess.

‘When you walk into any room it lights up with your bubbly personality. There is so much I could say. There’s a big hole in my heart that can never be filled.’

They added: ‘Your two sisters and big brother will always love and miss you to infinity. You will always and forever be in our hearts. Love Mum, Connor, Courtney and Cienna.’

Two women, both 18, a man, 19, and a boy, 18, remain in police custody on Monday after they were arrested on suspicion of murder.

A fifth person, a 17-year-old boy, was arrested on Monday on suspicion of murder. He remains in custody.

Her cousin Shantelle Watson wrote on GoFundMe: ‘My 16-year-old cousin’s life was sadly taken in tragedy.

’16 years young. She didn’t even make it to her 18th – her whole life was taken in a flash over a boy.

‘Her mum is distraught; she has left two younger siblings behind.’

She added: ‘I wanted to create a GoFundMe to help give her the best send off possible.

‘She didn’t deserve this; she was so full of life, such an innocent, beautiful soul taken too soon.’

Neighbour Wayne Mallows described how he tried to save the girl but she had been stabbed in the back.

The 64-year-old told the Daily Mail he performed CPR on the teenager on the pavement close to his home.

‘I was called out of the house about 5.50am on Saturday morning by a dog walker,’ he said.

‘She said that my neighbour was outside doing CPR on a young girl. He was getting tired. 

‘I asked if they’d rung an ambulance and then I realised that a phone was on the ground and he had it on loudspeaker. Ambulance control were giving him instructions.

‘I took over until the ambulance arrived 10 minutes later. She had been stabbed in the back and there was quite a bit of blood. Her eyes were just blank.’

Detective Chief Inspector James Entwistle, who is leading the investigation, said: ‘Our thoughts remain with Chloe’s family at this incredibly difficult time. Our specially-trained officers continue to provide them with support.

‘Our investigation into her death is ongoing and five people arrested on suspicion of murder remain in custody, as we continue to establish the full circumstances of this incident.

‘I am appealing to anyone with any relevant information to contact us.’

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.

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The US unleashed devastating air strikes on an ammunition depot believed to house Iran’s enriched uranium as a massive oil tanker was struck by an Iranian drone near the Strait of Hormuz. 

Donald Trump posted video of the US strike in the city of Isfahan to his Truth Social page, showing the 2,000lb bombs that set off a series of explosions in the night sky. 

The president did not provide any information about the enormous explosion with the video on his social media post.

An American official confirmed to The Wall Street Journal that the video showed the bunker buster strikes on Isfahan. 

The US strikes came after reports Mr Trump was considering a military operation to send special operations forces deep inside Iran to seize its stockpile of enriched uranium at sites that include Isfahan.

Fire-tracking satellites from NASA suggest the explosions happened near Mount Soffeh, an area believed to have military positions. 

The videos show massive fireballs and secondary explosions, common with ammunition, igniting in a blaze. Iran has not formally acknowledged the attack.

Isfahan is home to one of three uranium enrichment sites bombed by the US during the 12-day war between Iran and Israel in June last year. 

Amid the bunker buster attack on Isfahan, an Iranian drone stuck a fully loaded Kuwaiti tanker carrying 2million barrels of oil near the Strait of Hormuz – sparking fears of an oil spill in the Persian Gulf.

The apparent strike on the Al Salmi tanker is just the latest in a string of assaults on merchant vessels by missiles or explosive air and sea drones in the Gulf and Strait of Hormuz since the US and Israel attacked Iran on February 28. 

Kuwait Petroleum Corporation (KPC) said early on Tuesday that the Al Salmi was struck in an Iranian attack while anchored at Dubai port in the United Arab Emirates, causing damage to the vessel and a fire onboard. 

It warned of a possible oil spill in surrounding waters, Kuwaiti state news agency KUNA reported.

Dubai authorities said maritime firefighting teams successfully put out the blaze, which was sparked by a drone attack, and continued to assess the situation, adding that no injuries were reported and all 24 crew members were safe. 

Brent crude futures were up over 2 per cent at $115.17 per barrel in early Asian hours after the news of the attack on the tanker in Dubai, but retreated a little after reports Wednesday night that Mr Trump is willing to end the war even if the Strait of Hormuz remains closed.

Work is underway to assess damage to the tanker, said KPC, which according to Lloyd’s List Intelligence data is the parent company of Al Salmi’s registered owner and commercial operator.

The tanker was loaded with 2million barrels of oil from Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, according to data from Lloyd’s and TankerTrackers. Lloyd’s listed the destination as Qingdao, China.

Iranian officials could not be immediately reached for comment. It is not yet independently confirmed that Iran struck the tanker. 

It comes as Gulf allies of the United States, led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, are urging Mr Trump to continue prosecuting the war, arguing that Tehran hasn’t been weakened enough by the monthlong campaign, according to US, Gulf and Israeli officials.

After private grumbling at the start of the war that they were not given adequate advance notice of the US-Israeli attack and complaining the US had ignored their warnings that the war would have devastating consequences for the entire region, some of the regional allies are making the case to the White House that the moment offers a historic opportunity to cripple Tehran’s clerical rule once and for all.

Officials from Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Bahrain have conveyed in private conversations that they do not want the military operation to end until there are significant changes in the Iranian leadership or there’s a dramatic shift in Iranian behavior, according to the officials, who were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The push from the Gulf nations comes as Mr Trump vacillates between claiming that Iran’s decimated leadership is ready to settle the conflict and threatening to further escalate the war if a deal is not reached soon. 

Mr Trump on Monday threatened widespread destruction of Iran’s energy resources and other vital infrastructure, potentially including desalination plants that supply drinking water, if a deal to end the war is not reached ‘shortly.’

Iran, meanwhile, struck a key water and electrical plant in Kuwait, and an oil refinery in Israel came under attack. 

Israel and the US launched a new wave of strikes on Iran, as the war raged with no end in sight. 

Earlier comments to the Financial Times suggested American troops could seize Iran’s Kharg Island oil export hub. 

Mr Trump has repeatedly claimed to be making diplomatic progress – though Tehran denies negotiating directly – while ramping up his threats and sending thousands more US troops to the Middle East.

Mr Trump told the New York Post that the US is negotiating with Iran’s parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf. 

The former Revolutionary Guard commander, who has taunted the US on social media, dismissed the talks facilitated by Pakistan as a cover for the latest American troop deployments.

In a social media post, Mr Trump said ‘great progress is being made’ in talks with Iran to end military operations. 

But he said if a deal is not reached ‘shortly’, and if the Strait of Hormuz is not immediately reopened, the US would broaden its offensive by ‘completely obliterating’ power plants, oil wells, Kharg Island and possibly even desalination plants.

The strait is a crucial waterway through which a fifth of the world’s oil is shipped in peacetime.

The laws of armed conflict allow attacks on civilian infrastructure such as energy plants only if the military advantage outweighs the civilian harm, legal scholars say. 

It’s considered a high bar to clear, and causing excessive suffering to civilians can constitute a war crime.

The US already has targeted military positions on Kharg. Iran has threatened to launch its own ground invasion of Gulf Arab countries and to mine the Persian Gulf if US troops set foot on its territory.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said Tehran had received a 15-point proposal from the Mr Trump administration containing ‘excessive, unrealistic and irrational’ demands, while denying there had been any direct talks.

Qalibaf, the parliament speaker Mr Trump says he is negotiating with, said Iranian forces were ‘waiting for the arrival of American troops on the ground to set them on fire and punish their regional partners forever,’ according to state media.

Twice during Mr Trump’s second term, the US has attacked Iran during high-level diplomatic talks, including with the February 28 strikes that started the current war.

The attacks come just a day after Mr Trump said that he could ‘take the oil in Iran’ and boasted that he can invade Kharg Island ‘easily’.

It comes as the number of US troops in the Middle East swelled to 50,000, roughly 10,000 more than usual.

Tehran has promised to set American soldiers on fire should the US President order a ground invasion of the country, after the Pentagon drew up plans for potential raids on Kharg Island – the Islamic Republic’s main oil export hub – and attacks on coastal sites near the Strait of Hormuz.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Mr Trump said his ‘preference would be to take the oil’, comparing the potential operation to Venezuela where Washington intends to control the oil industry ‘indefinitely’ following its seizure of strongman leader Nicolás Maduro in January.

His comments came as the US-Israeli war on Iran stretched into its fifth week, deepening the crisis in the Middle East with the price of oil soaring more than 50 per cent in a month.

On Monday morning, Brent crude rose above $116 a barrel in Asia, near its highest level since the conflict began on February 28.

‘To be honest with you, my favorite thing is to take the oil in Iran but some stupid people back in the US say: “Why are you doing that?” But they’re stupid people,’ Mr Trump said.

Such a move would involve raiding Kharg Island, the ‘crown jewel’ of the regime where 90 per cent of its oil is loaded on to tankers.

The arrival of 2,500 Marines and another 2,500 sailors is keeping the number of US soldiers in the Mideast region at over 50,000, while last week the Pentagon also ordered about 2,000 soldiers from the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division to the region in order to give Mr Trump additional military options.

Mr Trump has previously promised he was ‘not putting troops anywhere’ amid apparent divisions in his MAGA base over foreign military engagements and the need for congressional approval.