Brighton's no place for a beach rave, say police

Brighton may ban free music parties on the beach after the chaos that attended DJ Norman Cook's Saturday night gig, Sussex Police said yesterday.

An unprecedented 250,000 people swamped the city's Big Beach Boutique II event, four times the expected number, overwhelming the emergency services. What had been planned as a party resulted in six sea rescues, six arrests, one death from a heart attack and a suspicious incident which left a woman of 26 critically ill.

Staff at the Royal Sussex County Hospital struggled to cope with 100 injured people and four people remained there yesterday. The hospital said it would need "more warning" if a similar event took place again. Police met Brighton city council and event organisers yesterday to discuss the lessons learnt from the weekend's mayhem.

But there were already signs that there would be no repeat of the unticketed, open access beach rave. Asked how the city would stage a future event, Chief Supt Doug Rattray, who led the police operation, said: "Possibly not on the beach. How suitable is the beach for events where numbers exceed expectation?

He said Brighton could follow Edinburgh's lead by issuing tickets for music concerts to limit the turn-out. Emergency services had not anticipated a quarter of a million revellers; the attendance at last year's event was just 40,000.

Chief Supt Rattray said operational shortcomings, stricter crowd control, public safety and alternative party venues had all been discussed.