It was planned as a small town birthday party for a sixteen-year-old girl. The invitations were issued and around 3,000 revellers turned up sparking violent clashes.

The, ‘birthday girl’ had forgotten to set her Facebook event to ‘private’ and the planned celebrations went viral.

Riot police broke up the crowd after the violence had flared in the town of Haren in the north of Holland.

Reports say up to 600 riot police were at the scene while six people were hurt, including three seriously and 20 people were arrested.

Its claimed shops were vandalised and looted and a car set on fire before the police broke up the crowd.

The girl who had planned her party would be small scale fled her home hours before the crowd descended on Haren which has a population of just under 19,000. The town had reportedly been preparing for the event all week.

Some revellers accused the police of over-reacting.