Police in England have arrested a woman in connection with a video of an allegedly “empty” hospital in Gloucestershire that was posted on social media.
Gloucestershire Constabulary police officers arrested the woman on Tuesday, on suspicion of a supposed “public order offence“.
The 46-year-old woman has been bailed until January on the condition that she does not enter any NHS facility except for a health emergency or appointment, according to the local news outlet Gloucestershire Live.
In the video posted on social media, the woman is heard saying: “Where’s the second wave? Where’re all the people dying from the second wave?” as she wanders through the largely deserted corridors of the hospital.
“We’ve just been locked down in Gloucestershire into Tier 3, for this? For an empty hospital, look at it, this is a disgrace,” the unnamed woman went on.
“To be honest I didn’t expect it to be this quiet,” the woman said, adding: “I expected a few more people to be around.”
“This is a disgrace. It is so dead. All the people in our country desperately waiting for treatment, cancer treatment heart disease, honestly this is making me so angry,” she concluded.
It is said to have been shared around 80,000 times on Facebook before being taken down, although sympathisers have uploaded fragments of the video to other platforms, such as Twitter.
In a statement, the Gloucestershire Police said: “Following a number of reports in relation to a video filmed by a member of the public at Gloucestershire Royal Hospital and posted online, officers arrested a 46-year-old woman yesterday (Tuesday 29 December) on suspicion of a public order offence.”
“The woman has been bailed to return to police on 21 January, with conditions that she cannot enter any NHS premises or the grounds of any such premises, unless in the case of an emergency or to attend a pre-arranged NHS appointment,” the police force added.
The woman claims a “thug of an officer” tried to “drag me off” wearing only a nightgown and “twisted my hands behind my back in handcuffs”, although she was eventually allowed to get dressed. She added that she was held in a police cell until 11:30 p.m. before being released.
In response to the arrest, London mayoral candidate David Kurten said: “A woman was arrested for filming this video of an empty hospital. This is not a crime. It is tyrannical to use the police to intimidate and harass whistleblowers.”
Follow Kurt Zindulka on Twitter here: @KurtZindulka