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 Sunday.
Hundreds of mostly young people descended on neighborhoods around the pumpkin festival Saturday, setting bonfires, throwing bottles and flipping several vehicles as police in riot gear tried to gain 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 Sunday.
Several injured arrived by ambulance while others came on their own, and all were treated and released, she said. Extra doctors and nurses were brought to the hospital, she said.
More people were treated at the scene, Phipps said. New Hampshire Governor Maggie Hassan said in statement Saturday she visited a medical tent at the scene.
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 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 Sunday 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 Saturday night.
“We deplore the actions of those whose only purpose was to cause mayhem,” Huot said in a prepared statement.
Huot said college, city, police and festival officials went to extensive efforts to keep the festival from becoming a catalyst for parties and disruptive activities.
“We can expect that the promotion by individuals and organizations of Keene and the pumpkin festival as a destination for destructive and raucous behavior, will only increase,” Huot said. “And we are certain that the negative behavior will continue if nothing changes.”