The faces of 90,000 revellers at Download Festival this weekend are being scanned by special police cameras - in a new scheme that could be rolled out to music events across the country. Leicestershire Police have set up facial recognition cameras in 'strategic' locations in Donington Park, to scan the faces of thousands of people attending the rock festival this weekend. Photos captured are then compared with images of wanted people from across Europe - but critics say it is infringing on people's privacy.

Officers say they hope the system will help locate organised criminal gangs that operate in music festivals to steal mobile phone, The Police Oracle reports. DC Kevin Walker told the website: 'It is one of the first times it has been trialled outside, normally it is done in a controlled environment. 'There has also been a lot of interest from other festivals and they are saying: 'If it works, can we borrow it?''

Renate Samson from Big Brother Watch, a campaign group against increased levels of surveillance in the UK, said Leicestershire already has one of the highest amounts of CCTV in the country. 'It's one thing to pay good money to think you're going to enjoy yourself at a festival,' she told blogger Joe Zadeh , 'to then unknowingly find that your face is being scanned using biometric technology and compared with a database of people in custody from across Europe takes the edge off the fun.'

According to the force's website, there was a 70 per cent reduction in crime at Download Festival - which top bands Slipknot, Muse and Kiss are performing at this year - with the number of crimes dropping from 301 in 2013 to 91 in 2014. Fans travel from across the country and Europe to attend the three-day festival, which started on Friday. A spokeswoman for Leicestershire Police said the facial recognition system does not capture images of revellers, adding: 'It compares them to a database that has been put together solely for this event and will be destroyed by the middle of next week.' 'Having your picture taken at Download is a condition of entry and is stated on every ticket', the statement released to The Independent continued. 'There are a number of tactics the police use to identify criminal activity and they do this to keep people safe and ensure that those who have come to the festival to enjoy the music, can do so without becoming a victim of crime.”