Students' toga parade turns into shambles

University of Otago students' annual toga parade dissolved into chaos last night, leaving the city with a big mess to be cleaned.

Dunedin's main street was left littered with eggs, rubbish and glass, car and shop windows were smashed and some participants were injured.

The Otago Daily Times reported three teenagers had been arrested on minor disorder charges.

Otago University Students Association president Edwin Darlow said a breakdown in communication was believed to have resulted in hundreds of first-year students assembling an hour earlier than the official 7.30pm start, which may have fuelled the trouble.

The parade of about 2000 left the Dental School, heading for the Octagon via George St, about 7pm. By that time, participants had been targeted by egg-throwing bystanders.

As the large mass of students moved into George St, hundreds of eggs, bottles, rubbish, and buckets full of vomit and faeces, were thrown from first-floor verandas and alleyways, as well as at shop frontages.

Car windows were smashed, rubbish bins were emptied on to the street, the shop window of Brent Weatherall Jewellers was cracked, shop signs were pulled down and glass littered the street.

Senior Sergeant Trevor Thomson, of Dunedin, said officers were prepared for the parade but were taken aback by the early arrival of "unorganised halls" at the starting point, the Dental School, in Great King St.

Extra officers were sent when property damage started, he said.

- NZPA