Scenes from a large St Patrick's Day party in Dunedin, just a few hundred metres from a locked down high school.

Hundreds of Dunedin uni students attended a large flat party, 200 metres from a high school closed after a student tested positive for coronavirus.

The students, who were told they were all "getting f...ing coronavirus" by the DJ, walked past Logan Park High School to get to the flat, which shut on Tuesday for 48 hours.

Supplied Scenes from inside a large St Patrick's Day party in Dunedin.

The St Patrick's Day party was held at a Butts Rd flat, known as The Lake House, an Historic Places Category 1 property formerly known as the Pelichet Bay Infectious Diseases Hospital, established in 1908 to accommodate Dunedin patients with serious communicable illnesses.

Dunedin City Council confirmed they received four complaints in total.

The first, at 4.29pm, was deemed to not be excessive as 500-plus people were in attendance. The next two complaints, at 10.01pm and 11.06pm, were both deemed to be excessive – the party had more than 1000 attendees.

Students spoken to by Stuff were seemingly oblivious to the Dunedin coronavirus outbreak, now confirmed at two cases.

STUFF This Heritage-listed Dunedin house, now four student flats, was used in the movie Scarfies and started life as the Pelichet Bay Infectious Disease Hospital.

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A man in his 40s developed symptoms five days after returning from Europe, as well as his son, a student at Logan Park.

Hamish McNeilly/Stuff Students at a large St Patrick's Day party on Butts Rd, 200m from a school closed due to coronavirus.

Another family member was also showing symptoms.

The party comes after the University of Otago urged students to show "social responsibility", in an effort to contain the outbreak, and another outbreak of mumps.

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Dunedin students party at a flat just a few hundred metres near a school shut because of coronavirus.

Eight University of Otago students have been confirmed as having mumps, an infectious viral illness – the main symptom of which is swollen salivary glands at the side of the face – with four remaining in isolation.

Supplied A reveller on the roof at a flat known as The Lake House.

University head of student health services Margaret Perley said they didn't want to add more workload to health resources "because they're going to be very stretched".

"We really need to minimise spread and mass gatherings are not a way to minimise mass spread."

She also urged all students to get vaccinated, with Student Health and the Southern DHB holding MMR vaccination clinics.

Perley also asked students to show social responsibility and reconsider plans to congregate in large groups.

Police slammed the drunken behaviour in Dunedin's student quarter on St Patrick's Day.

RAY WHITE The Pelichet Bay Infectious Disease Hospital. pictured in 2019, has been used for student accommodation for the past 60 years.

"Our staff were required to deal with a number of incidents involving intoxicated people and this behaviour was disappointing," Senior Sergeant Craig Dinnissen said.

That included the large party at Butts Rd, with large amounts of empty bottles and "trash strewn around the area".

Hamish McNeilly/Stuff Police check on St Patrick's Day revellers on Castle St, in Dunedin's student quarter.

Police were also called to large parties on Castle St and Bracken Point lookout, which required police intervention.

Five people were referred to the University of Otago as a result of their behaviour, Dinnissen said.

"Even though police had extra staff working, large scale unplanned student events such as these draw on the finite emergency resources across Dunedin."

Two other people were arrested in separate disorderly behaviour incidents, with one given a pre-charge warning while the other would appear in the Dunedin District Court.

Ministry of Health Director-General Dr Ashley Bloomfield commented to media about the large student party on St Patrick's Day.

"We need to take mass gatherings seriously, and this is something we have given further advice to Cabinet and they are considering that," he said.

"Stopping mass gatherings will be a really important part we have seen that from overseas, of preventing onward community transmission."