KEENE, N.H. (AP) — Huge crowds including Keene State College students and visitors to an annual pumpkin festival in New Hampshire became unruly Saturday, leading to injuries and arrests.
College officials provided few specifics on the melee but said Keene State students and out-of-town visitors were involved. The school said in a statement that off-campus gatherings escalated at locations around the city.
Keene State student Ellery Murray told The Boston Globe she was at a party that had drawn a large crowd when people started throwing things. She said police responded in riot gear and used tear gas to break up the crowd.
“People were just throwing everything they could find — rocks, skateboards, buckets, pumpkins,” she said. “People just got too drunk.”
The Southwestern New Hampshire Fire Mutual Aid organization said on Twitter that several people were injured from thrown bottles at a party involving hundreds of people.
New Hampshire Gov. Maggie Hassan said state and local safety officials worked to defuse what she called “the situation.”
Hours after the commotion broke out, emergency officials said they were still working the scene and couldn’t provide any details.
College President Anne Huot said in an emailed statement that the festival has been promoted by others “as a destination for destructive and raucous behavior” and the college had tried on the front end, in working with the city and campus, to prevent this from happening.
“We deplore the actions of those whose only purpose was to cause mayhem,” she said, adding that the students involved will be held accountable.
Photo courtesy of WMUR 9.
It’s so sad to see our college students so disaffected and turned off from society that their idea of fun is this sort of thing. Why are we letting our future look like this to our kids?
Here’s a link to the campus police scanner Keen State College
“People just got too drunk.”
Well, there you go.
This is worthy of being an item on TPM? A bunch of drunken college students (which is redundant) act like drunken college students. Why am I not surprised?
Sarah Palin’s feral family strikes again??
Nah … the last place you’d ever find her kids is at a college.