Up to 1,200 injured as Glastonbury turns into mudbath

More than 1,000 Glastonbury festival-goers have been injured after torrential rain turned the site into a mud-soaked obstacle course.

Around 1,200 became casualties and 32 needed hospital treatment after being caught out by the slippery conditions at the UK festival.

Most suffered minor cuts and bruises or sprains through losing their footing.

Meanwhile forecasters warned tonight that conditions could get even worse.

More torrential downpours are expected tomorrow across southern England, with forecasts of up to 60-80mm of rain in the next 48 hours bringing more flooding.

It was the news most of the 180,000 gathered at Glastonbury had feared, as the novelty of dancing through the quagmire began to wear thin on the second day.

Huge crowds crammed into covered stages to watch smaller acts, as the rain lashed down on Worthy Farm today.

Queues built up around the main thoroughfares as revellers struggled to wade through more than five inches of thick sticky mud.

Tractors, running on refined cooking oil, worked overtime towing dredgers sucking up the worst of the mud.

Despite the testing conditions, Lily Allen and Dirty Pretty Things lifted the spirits as tens of thousands of fans ignored the miserable conditions to enjoy the music and entertainment.

Later tonight The Kooks, The Killers and Iggy and the Stooges will bring the curtain down on the second day of the biggest ever Glastonbury.

Forecasters warned the expected downpours had the potential to cause yet more problems for revellers on the last night of the festival.

The great getaway which follows the final act on Sunday night could take even longer than normal, as 40,000 cars fight their way out of the waterlogged fields.

The rain could lead to localised flooding in areas that are already saturated - prompting fears that tents could be washed away.

Gareth Harvey, forecaster at MeteoGroup UK, PA’s weather division, said: “Sixty to 80mm is more than a month’s worth of rain, on top of what we’ve already had. It will cause some major problems if it does occur.”

In 2005, hundreds of tents at Glastonbury were swept away in freak, flash floods, but organisers today insisted this year’s conditions were no where near as bad.

Festival guru Michael Eavis spent £750,000 on flood prevention measures to avoid a repeat of the chaotic scenes – and they appeared to be working.

“There’s ground water, which has made the site muddy, but it’s nothing like the situation in 2005 when camping areas flooded,” a spokesman said.

“We’re hoping this is the last day of heavy rain. Everyone seems to be having a good time and it’s not washed out the spirit.”

Paul Grant, 52, from Kent, said the new flood barriers had paid off.

“The weather has been just as bad, if not worse.

“But it is not nearly as difficult to get from one stage to another.

“It has all become par for the course with Glastonbury – once you’re in you just enjoy it as much as you can.”

Police said today that there has been a “slight” increase in crime compared with 2005, the last year Glastonbury was staged.

By this morning there had been 163 reported crimes, the majority of which were drug offences.

Police later confirmed that a man had been taken to hospital following a suspected drug overdose at the festival.

A 26-year-old man from the Midlands was taken to Yeovil District Hospital in the early hours of this morning.

An Avon and Somerset police spokesman said: “The man was found in an unconscious state by festival staff in the Park Farm area of the site.”

The man is described as being in a critical condition.