VANCOUVER, British Columbia — As the Olympics have progressed and the warm and dry weather has continued, boisterous crowds have continued to grow late at night downtown. So much so that the Vancouver police are becoming alarmed.

At the request of police, British Columbia’s liquor board ordered liquor stores to close at 7 p.m. on Saturday in a bid to reduce the increasingly large number of obviously drunk people making noise and sometimes fighting with each other in the city’s center.

“The strategy behind this is to stop the supply of alcohol to the streets,” Constable Jana McGuinness said in a statement. “We are seeing people replenishing their stock at nearby liquor stores and then openly consuming the liquor in the streets.”

She added, “We are encouraging people to enjoy the Olympic experience but to do so responsibly by leaving the alcohol at home.”



As Saturday night became Sunday morning, there was little evidence that the early liquor store closings had improved the situation. If anything, the crowds appeared to have reached even higher numbers along Granville Street, which has been the epicenter of Olympic partying. Some of it has been closed to traffic for the duration of the Olympics while its remainder has been shut most nights to accommodate crowds spilling out of its numerous bars and nightclubs.

It was also not apparent that the early liquor store closings had brought sobriety to the gathering.

Saturday also saw an expansion of the increased police presence that began on Friday. Police from the Integrated Security Unit, a force of officers from across Canada led by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, are now assisting the local force. A police helicopter which tracked protesters a week ago hovered over downtown through the night and into the early morning. And police officers on horseback were on the scene.

Outside a nightclub two handcuffed men, one with a bloody nose, sat on the road and were surrounded by about a half dozen police officers.

Most of the revelers were well under 30 and a significant number seem to be very intoxicated. A stroll through downtown near midnight saw several young men urinating in public, numerous people drunk to the point where they needed support from friends to stay standing and two women who said they were not feeling well who certainly looked the part.

The situation was a contrast with Whistler, the town hosting the downhill skiing and sliding events, earlier Saturday night. Its crowds of Olympic celebrants, which were proportionately just as large, spanned a wider range of ages. Although the village center was congested, obvious drunks were a minority. Earlier in the day, Gregor Robertson, the mayor of Vancouver, asked his citizens not to create the impression that they lived in a city of rowdy inebriants.

“The spotlight is on us as we celebrate with guests from around the world,” Robertson said in a statement. “We want to ensure the memories people take home are ones of a great time in a wonderful city.”

Adding to the tensions on Saturday was a long predicted overload of the Canada Line subway system, which was built in part to accommodate the Games. Throughout the evening, long lines formed at its downtown stations as police officers and security guards limited entry to avoid overcrowding on platforms.