Covid: Lancaster students climb out of windows to escape party fine

Partying students climbed out of windows to escape being fined for breaching Covid rules, police have said.

Officers found between 50 to 70 people at students flats in Lancaster in the early hours of Saturday.

Lancashire Police said 38 people were each fined £800 because the gathering was more than 15 people.

Deputy Chief Constable Terry Woods said the force was no longer issuing warnings, adding: "Enough is enough."

He said officers were called to a "really large party" reported by a member of the public at about 01:30 GMT on Saturday.

"I think there were about 50 to 70 students, we caught 38 but the others climbed out of windows," he said.

Mr Woods said the flat owner would get a "substantially larger fine".

The University of Lancaster said it had been made aware of "an incident off campus that constitutes a very serious breach of university and national Covid regulations".

A spokeswoman said in addition to police penalties some students could be "permanently excluded" if they were found to have committed the most serious lockdown breaches for offences "including but not limited to, large gatherings".

Mr Woods also said the force had a busy weekend across the county dealing with 461 incidents and issuing 227 on-the-spot fines.

He said the main problems were with house parties and unnecessary journeys.

"We are really starting to clamp down," Mr Woods added.

"This is our line in the sand - enough is enough. It is pretty clear what people need to be doing."