WATERLOO — Waterloo Regional Police officers had beer bottles and cans thrown at them as they attempted to disperse a crowd of about 1,000 rowdy students from a neighbourhood near Wilfrid Laurier University Saturday.

Just before 10:30 p.m., police were called to State and Fir streetsnear University Avenue to control a crowd of about 1,000 students who were at a house party on State Street.

This was Homecoming weekend and police were busy controlling large groups of students who were outside in the warm weather. On Saturday afternoon, police were busy near and around Ezra Street with students drinking outside.

Staff Sgt. Michael Mercer said many in the crowd Saturday night were drinking and bottle and cans were thrown at the officers.

No one was injured, he said.

Up to 43 officers were called to the area from Waterloo and various divisions in the region to help control the situation. It took about an hour to clear the crowd, he said.

"Forty-three officers to disperse a crowd. Wow," he said.

Several vehicles were damaged, including police cruisers.

Brent Godkin watched the disorder grow in the area throughout the day from his porch on State Street.

"There was probably close to 300 people out there," Godkin said of the scene around his home at about 10 p.m. Saturday. He and his neighbours were told Saturday afternoon a keg party was planned in a house on their street, but didn't think much of it until the crowd ballooned.

He said a single police car drove close to the crowd to try to get people off the road, inviting one or two people to throw bottles at it. Soon, he said people in the crowd began to toss dozens of bottles at the cruiser, and at each other.

"Even if one or two (police officers) got out of their car, people would just toss bottles at them."

He said police blocked off the street to prevent more people from joining the party.

"We woke up this morning with glass all over our laneway and our lawn and just cans, red cups and a lot of mess."

Sydney Peister, a third-year business student at Laurier, who lives three doors from the party house, was cleaning up broken glass from the street Sunday morning.

Peister and some of her friends were at the party earlier in the night, but left when they didn't know anyone there.

When she returned home later Saturday night, a police cruiser was damaged near her home and a paramedic was putting a woman on a stretcher into an ambulance. The police had blocked off the street from both Hazel and Hickory streets.

"State Street is usually a very quiet street," she said. "This was a party with a lot of people and it go out of control."

Jolene Darrah lives on State Court, less than 100 metres away from where the revelry took place Saturday. People running to and from the party trampled her flower beds and a shelter she built for feral cats.

"Even the St. Patrick's Day (party) when it was warm that one year, was mild compared to this."

She put the number of people in and around State Street when police arrived at about 1,000.

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"If they didn't come then I have a funny feeling it would have turned into a riot."

Mercer said more information, including statistics on Homecoming weekend and police activity as part of Project Safe Semester, will be released later this week.

A 19-year-old Guelph man is charged with assaulting a police officer with a weapon.