Officials in California have dumped 37 tonnes of sand on a skate park after people were spotted using it despite it being closed due to the lockdown.

San Clemente closed all its parks and other outdoor facilities on 1 April, following the state’s ‘stay-at home’ orders and ‘no trespassing signs’ were put up.

But, skaters were still seen visiting popular skate park Ralph’s Skate Court prompting officials to take action and filling it with tonnes of sand.

Officials told CBS they ‘routinely saw people visit’, so they decided to follow in the footsteps of other cities and dump a load of sand in there.

Samantha Wylie, the city’s recreation manager for the Beaches, Parks and Recreation Department, told the San Clemente Times: “On April 1, we kind of let it play out to see if users would abide by the closure.

“During that [two-week period], we saw people continue to skate the park, groups would gather, kids with their parents; it became a regular [occurrence]. It appeared the closure was not being abided by.”

She added: “The sand was what other agencies were doing. We’re doing what other parks have done to enforce that message of social distancing.”

She told the news outlet her team had considered putting up fencing but that ‘fencing is really difficult to get right now’ and that it wouldn’t have stopped people from simply climbing over.

However, Stephanie Aguilar, president of the San Clemente Skatepark Coalition, which has raised money to support the park, said they were not notified about the sand in advance. She told the news outlet: “It just seems there could have been better communication, which could have helped with the response to everybody.

“There’s a lot of people within our community who have put a lot of time and money, personal money… to the skate park.

“That visual representation of the city dumping sand into the skate park, it almost feels like, when you look at it, the city vandalised its own park, and I think it pains people to see it.”

Alongside the closure of parks, San Clemente has also closed all its beaches and the San Clemente Pier, as well as shutting off coastal trails.