Police were showered with bottles by rampaging youths and squared up to boy racers and drunks as the weekend turned ugly.
A specialist Wellington teen policing team had to provide backup as local police and about 150 youths, mostly teenagers, clashed outside a house party in Paraparaumu early on Saturday morning.
Sergeant
Chris Blanchard said 13 police vehicles were called to the incident, which began about midnight and lasted several hours.
Bottles were thrown at police several times during the standoff, glass was strewn across the street, neighbouring gardens were trampled and letterboxes and street signs damaged.
There were no injuries to police.
Thirty-four people were arrested, most to "remove them from the situation", as fights broke out among the partygoers. Four people were to appear in court this week on public disorder charges, Mr Blanchard said.
Things started to get out of hand when the occupants of the house locked visitors, possibly gatecrashers, out of the party, he said.
In Palmerston North, boy racers and drunken revellers kept police busy as 18 people ended up in the cells after a night of confrontations in the city's square on Saturday, The Dominion Post reported today.
Sergeant Andy Brooke said the first incident involved boy racers who started "creating problems" in the square about 11.30pm.
Police then had to battle to enforce a 24-hour liquor ban in the central business district.
Fights erupted and police were abused after they collared a man for breaching the ban. Ten police moved through the crowd and several people were arrested for public order offences.
- NZPA
