Coronavirus: Bournemouth beach-goers on why they're back despite closure warnings
Sky News spoke to visitors who decided to travel despite yesterday's "major incident".
Friday 26 June 2020 19:41, UK
On Thursday, the government threatened to close beaches if people continue to visit in overwhelming numbers.
England's chief medical officer also warned that coronavirus cases will rise again if people do not practice social distancing.
But their stern words didn't put people off flocking back to Bournemouth today, despite officials declaring a "major incident" yesterday.
Sky News spoke to them to find out why.
Ross and Lyn, from Romford
"It's raining in Romford and so we wanted to come down. It's lovely! It's actually the first time I've been to Bournemouth.
"I saw how crowded it was yesterday. It was awful I wouldn't have wanted to be here.
"The weather isn't as good today and it's still early so there is space.
"It will probably be packed out later and we'll head home."
Sheila, Yvonne and Rex, from Dorset
Yvonne said: "We live nearby and we came down today because we tend to walk around here every Friday.
"We weren't here yesterday. We were horrified by what we saw, absolutely horrified."
Rex added: "As we've lived here all our lives we are used to the beach and we can understand people coming to visit."
Sheila said: "We were very concerned about everyone being so close together. There's also lots of rubbish."
Charlene, Hannah and Reggie, from Andover
Hannah said: "We came down to bring the kids to the beach. We haven't taken them anywhere since lockdown began.
"It was ridiculous yesterday. There wasn't social distancing and it was so busy. We thought about not coming but checked the weather and thought it would be less busy, so we came down for an hour only."
Fatima and family, from Cobham, Surrey
She said: "It's my birthday and I wanted to spend it on the beach with my family.
"It's a lot calmer compared to what we saw on the news yesterday. It seems like people are socially distancing.
"We hope it stays that way. We are going to follow the rules and have fun.
"I was worried when I saw what happened here yesterday, we nearly cancelled.
"We had planned this in advance. We just want to celebrate."
Reece, 18, from Blandford Forum, Dorset
"I came down here to meet my mates.
"To be honest yesterday was ridiculous. If people are coming down then they need to treat the beach properly.
"It was absolutely ridiculous having so many people crammed in together. If I was on the beach yesterday I would have been worried.
"I'm not going on it today because there were so many people yesterday."
Greg and Paula, from Wimborne, Dorset
Paula said: "We were inspired to come out after watching the news and seeing social media. We created a group on Facebook to clean up the beach. I thought we had to do something about it.
"It's quite laughable that people aren't taking coronavirus seriously."
Greg added: "My dad has a heart condition and if he got it then he could die. There may be people coming from high incidence areas."