Rioting, mass arrests erupt at NH pumpkin festival

Associated Press

KEENE, N.H.

Violent disturbances near Keene State College during an annual pumpkin festival lasted until early Sunday and involved dozens of arrests and injuries, as well as police in riot gear using tear gas to disperse crowds.

Keene State student Ellery Murray told The Boston Globe that she was at a party Saturday that had drawn a large crowd when people started throwing things.

“People were just throwing everything they could find — rocks, skateboards, buckets, pumpkins,” she said. “People just got too drunk.”

The parties around the school coincided with the annual Keene Pumpkin Festival, where the community tries to set a world record of the largest number of carved and lighted jack-o-lanterns in one place.

WMUR-TV in Manchester showed video of a crowd overturning a car, people running from tear gas clouds, street signs being torn down and fires burning in the streets. Police, who dressed in riot gear and ordered crowds to disperse, also investigated reports of people throwing glass bottles and fireworks, jumping off a roof and banging on cars.

One group of young people threatened to beat up an elderly man, and another resident heard someone “threatening to kill officers,” according to the Keene Police Department log, which shows 235 calls between 2:30 a.m. Friday and 3:30 a.m. Sunday and at least 49 arrests.