More than two dozen people were treated at a New Hampshire hospital for injuries resulting from rioting that erupted near the site of an annual pumpkin festival in Keene, a hospital official said on Sunday.
Hundreds of mostly young people descended on neighborhoods around the pumpkin festival on Saturday, setting bonfires, throwing bottles and flipping some vehicles as police in riot gear tried to keep control, according to local news coverage.
All told, 26 people arrived at Cheshire Medical Center/Dartmouth-Hitchcock Keene with lacerations or other injuries, hospital spokeswoman Sandra Phipps said on Sunday.
Keene City Manager John MacLean said the disruptions happened about two blocks from the pumpkin fest boundaries adjacent to Keene State College and ended after midnight Sunday.
"People come from outside the area, they drink a lot, they form up in streets and this year they got out of control," MacLean said on Sunday. "They started throwing bottles and cans of beer and rocks at one another. We've had some of this in the past but not in this proportion."
A dispatcher for the Keene Police Department said on Sunday that arrests were made but she did not have a number. She referred a reporter to a supervisor, who was unable to provide a total.
Some of the people taking part in the riot were Keene State students and will be held accountable for their behavior, Anne Huot, the school's president, said on Saturday night.
