The mayor of Miami Beach, Florida, declared a state of emergency and imposed a curfew on Saturday evening after a massive crowd poured into the city’s streets on the occasion of “Spring Break.”
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Mayor Dan Gilber told CNN: “Too many people come without intending to follow the rules, and the result is a level of chaos and disruption that is more than we can handle.”
Pictures circulating on social media show hundreds of revelers gathered on the streets of the southern city of the United States amid the outbreak.
Mr. Gilber commented, “At night, it feels like you are at a rock concert. There are wall-to-wall people on multiple blocks.”
Early Sunday morning, Miami Beach Police said they had carried out “at least ten” arrests after the curfew went into effect.
The curfew, which begins at 8 p.m., applies and closes many streets in the Miami Beach entertainment district for 72 hours.
Roads into the city are also closed to non-local traffic from 9 PM for the next few nights.
The mayor of Miami Beach told CNN, “If you come here because you are frustrated and want to abandon you, you think you can do anything, please don’t come here.”
We have more police everywhere, and we’re going to arrest people and we’ve already done that. “We will maintain order,” he added.