Tents torched at Reading Festival as people compare disorder to Woodstock 99

Numerous tents have been torched as disorder broke out on the final day of Reading Festival.

Posts on social media showed burning tents as people reported fleeing the event in fear of violence.

In some videos, groups of people could be seen throwing camping chairs onto the flames as belongings were burned to ashes.

One person on Twitter said people were afraid of sleeping in their tents, others said they left the event early while parents had to come and collect their children.

At 3:40am on Sunday the festival tweeted to ask festival-goers to 'be safe and to take their tents home'.

User 'JedWhite123' said , "Had to drive from Birmingham at gone midnight last night to rescue my two lads as their & others had been ripped apart & totally destroyed. scary stuff going on. Financial loss on camping equipment but relieved my boys are safe!"

Meanwhile user @Jo50G said, "My daughter was petrified…not able to get out of her tent on Sunday afternoon, warned to leave early due to what goes on on a Sunday night….I called the police from my home to go over to Reading festival to help these poor kids out who paid a lot of money to be unsafe!"

A spokesperson for Thames Valley Police said,

"There were some fires in the campsite on Sunday, but festival security had water pumps and extinguished these within minutes.

"There was some disorder in the campsite at about 4.30pm on Sunday, but this was dealt with within minutes by festival security and about fifty people were ejected from the site.

"Those ejected were safeguarded by the festival organisers, Thames Valley Police, and British Transport Police to ensure they could get home safely."

People have been drawing comparisons to the disorder to the chaotic scenes of Woodstock 99, a festival which turned into three days of violence.

The show is the focus of a recent Netflix documentary.