When Liz Baldwin set out to break the record for the fastest drawing of an unbroken mile-long chalk line, the last thing she expected was to have a run in with the law.

However for one policeman, this was clearly a line that shouldn’t be crossed.

Just fifty yards from completion and poised to beat the current record of one hour 20 minutes, an officer decided to put a stop to the first year design student’s record breaking attempt.

Yesterday, Baldwin, who is studying BA Design at Goldsmiths College London, spent the evening crawling through East London on her hands and knees, dodging dogs, pedestrians and traffic to mark the line on the pavement.

“I was so close to breaking this guy’s record,” the 20-year-old said.

“When the policeman started talking to me I was a bit dumbfounded. I was like: ‘are you serious?”

In a video of the attempt a policeman can be seen asking Baldwin and photography student Sarah Blaikey, 20, what they were doing.

When they explain he responds: “Drawing on the pavement can still be seen as criminal damage even if it can be washed away. I know its chalk but don’t do it.”

Blaikey and an exhausted Baldwin can be heard reasoning with the officer but to no avail.

“When the filming stopped I went around the corner and had a bit of a cry,” says Baldwin.

“It felt like it was all for nothing, but I got a first in the end so I was pretty chuffed”.