St Paddy’s chaos: Students light fires, take over Dunedin streets

Dunedin students’ love affair with burning couches has been rekindled for St Patrick’s Day ‘celebrations’. Video / Supplied

The cold and the clag has not stopped some partying students from causing problems in Dunedin’s student quarter this morning.

An ODT reporter in North Dunedin said by 9am there were already hundreds of drunk students wandering from party to party celebrating St Patrick’s Day.

Police and Fire and Emergency New Zealand had to deal with a couch fire in a Castle St flat called Death Star about 9am.

The reporter estimated 150 students were gathered in and around the flat. One student said the couch fire helped keep them warm.

Many were wearing green and there were a few green Teletubbies about.

One reveller was wearing nothing at all and streaked across North Ground.

Many of the partying students had been up since 5am.

Senior Sergeant Anthony Bond, of Dunedin, said there were already a lot of students in the North Dunedin area who had ”drunk a lot of alcohol already.”

Police had visited flats to remind and educate partygoers of the Covid-19 traffic light Red restrictions, as big gatherings posed the risk of spreading the virus.

”Hopefully, common sense will prevail.”

Related articles

Officers were rostered on throughout the day and would be out and about until 3am.

They would also been working with Campus Watch and had the ability to refer students to the proctor if needed.