POLICE had to intervene and a girl was taken to hospital in an ambulance after underage drinkers caused havoc at a Huddersfield nightclub.

Greenhead College is now investigating after the party at the Camel Club – organised by a student – got out of hand.

About 400 teenagers turned up for the event, which had been an annual highlight for college students, on Tuesday night.

Pc Lisa Harley, who was on patrol, said: “It was horrendously noisy, you could hear it all the way down the street – it was like a football match.

“When we got there it was absolute chaos outside. There were bodies strewn everywhere, girls with skirts up to their elbows, vomit all over the place.

“I went to speak to the doorstaff who were saying it was a total nightmare.”

Pc Harley said several parents were contacted about their children and an ambulance was called to attend to a 16-year-old girl who was uncontrollably drunk.

A police escort had to go with the paramedics after the girl became aggressive. It is understood she had to be restrained by medics at Huddersfield Royal Infirmary before she could be treated.

Club owner Dave Biddle, who was not there on the night, said he was “absolutely gutted.”

“If the girl who had to be taken to hospital was my child I would have felt extremely angry,” he said.

“There are no excuses, we just want to offer a sincere apology.”

Mr Biddle said previous events run with Greenhead College had passed off without trouble.

“Unfortunately, for some reason this one was different,” he said. “But I’ve checked our sales for the night and we sold hardly any alcohol. The main thing was that a lot of them had already drunk a lot before they got there.

“One of the doorstaff told me a girl tried to go in with a bottle of what looked like water. When she was told she couldn’t, she downed it and then dumped the bottle.

“It turned out it was Pernod.”

He said anyone who was drunk was turned away and anyone buying alcohol was asked for ID.

The club, in Byram Court, off John William Street, has agreed to tighten controls by installing extra CCTV, banning under-18s, denying entry to anyone after 2.30am, stopping alcohol sales at 3.30am and closing at 4am – two hours earlier than at present.

Mr Biddle added: “This is the last time we’ll ever hold an event like this.”

The father of one Greenhead College student asked why the college had allowed the event to take place.

He said: “If you allow hundreds of students to go to a nightclub together on a Tuesday night, what do you expect?”

Licensing officer Pc Richard Farrand said he was confident the trouble would be a one-off.

He said: “We are more than happy to talk to licensees who want to ensure their premises are run properly. There have never been problems with the Camel Club before, but unfortunately there were some issues on this occasion.

“However, the licensee has said that he will co-operate with police and we will work together to ensure that such problems do not occur again.”

Greenhead College principal Martin Rostron spoke of his dismay at the trouble.

“We’re very disappointed by this behaviour,” he said. “We will be letting the students know that we disapprove and we need to make sure they learn from this.”

Mr Rostron explained that the annual start-of-term event was designed to help students bond.

He said: “Our senior students have a tradition of organising a party for the new students. It’s happened for many years without any problems.”

Mr Rostron stressed that the college does not organise the annual party, but staff do try to guide students.

He said: “We advise our senior students about what is sensible. We’re also holding assemblies to get across the message about alcohol and drugs.”