KEY POINTS:
Dunedin is cleaning up after alcohol fuelled students rioted in the city last night, pelting police with bottles and setting cars, mattresses and couches on fire.
The rioting was centred in the heart of the student area of North Dunedin was triggered by excess alcohol in the wake of the student Undie 500.
Dunedin police Senior Sergeant Bruce Ross told NZPA between 7pm on Friday and 7am today, 69 people were arrested in the Castle Street and Hyde Street area where the rioting happened.
Of those 69 arrested, 30 were Otago University students and 24 were Canterbury University students.
Fifteen were non-students "there to join in the fun", Mr Ross said.
Those arrested will begin to appear in Dunedin District Court from Tuesday, on a variety of charges, including breaching the peace.
Mr Ross said police were at one of the flats talking to the occupants when they began to be pelted with bottles.
"It was totally unprovoked."
It took police, with extra reinforcements from outlying areas, until about 11pm to bring the crowd under control.
Police and fire crews were lucky to escape without any serious injury as students threw bottles and set cars alight, he said.
"Some police have got some nasty grazes from flying bottles."
Mr Ross said he was not expecting anymore trouble tonight because most of the students were returning home, but the area would be patrolled.
Dunedin's mayor Peter Chin told NZPA he was devastated by the aftermath of the destruction he saw .
Mr Chin, who heard about the rioting this morning, said he walked through Castle Street about 8am today and viewed the burnt cars and broken glass.
"It was a desolate, depressing sight.
"The event is history."
Mr Chin said the council and university had made good progress over the years managing the event to ensure problems like last night were avoided.
"All those measures haven't worked."
Mr Chin said he refused to accept that drunkenness was an excuse for the students behaviour.
"I hope those arrested will not be diverted, they have to be responsible for their actions."
Mr Chin said there was a difference between having fun and creating mayhem.
He had already spoken with police and would speak with university representatives about the event.
"The clean-up is under way and everything will be restored but the aftermath will take sometime to resolve."
Mr Chin said the rioting was more shocking because "there was a huge amount of goodwill" among the students.
While he did not know what triggered the students to riot, Mr Chin said the length of time people had been drinking had to be a major contributor.
Partying outdoors, from the early hours of Saturday morning when the students started arriving, had been helped by an unusually warm weekend for the city, he said.
Mr Chin said the rioting came at a time when the culture of the university had been broken down and Otago university past-times such as couch burning had been phased out.
"Things had been working extremely well."
The majority of students at Otago were there for the education and a minority was spoiling it for them with their bad behaviour, he said.
"I'm really pissed off with what's happened."
- NZPA
