A video has emerged that shows around 200 people partying in the streets of Leicester just days before the city became the first part of the UK to be locally locked down due to a spike on coronavirus cases.
The block party took place in the Highfields area of the city and saw a large group of people - many failing to observe social distancing measures - dancing and partying until the early hours of Sunday night.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock ordered a local lockdown in Leicester after announcing that the city had "10 percent of all positive cases in the country over the past week".
Councillor Rashmikant Joshi, whose North Evington ward is near to where the event took place, told the Daily Mail that his ward has the highest number of new cases in the city.
He explained: "We have a lot of inter-generational households, where young people live with their grandparents.
"South Asians also tend to live in larger family groups, which increases the risk of infection.
"Since the easing of the lockdown, a lot of youngsters have been going out more and not maintaining social distance.
"There's a high chance that they came home and passed on the virus to elderly relatives."
The event has angered some of the local community, with one woman who wished to remain anonymous telling The Sun: "There were hundreds of young people on Oxendon Walk dancing and singing until late. Someone had even brought a sound system and speakers - the music was so loud.
"And it isn't the first party in Highfields. People haven't taken lockdown seriously at all around here so I'm not surprised there have been so many cases of the virus.
"The day after the party the street was littered with hippy crack canisters. My mum even tried to start clearing them up because she didn't know what they were. It's a disgrace."
The localised lockdown means that schools will close down from Thursday, and non-essential shops in the city will remain closed as of today.
It represents a return to the previous and more strict lockdown measures that were in place across the entire UK until recently.
This is because the rates of infection in Leicester are now three times that of the town that has the next highest infection rate.
So, with the numbers of cases increasing, 10 percent of tests are coming back as positive, which is five times the national rate.
The Highfields area is thought to be the local epicentre of this spike in cases.
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