New potent batches of MDMA said to leave users “walking around like glass”.

Students have been warned over a new wave of “super-raves” that could result in a “perfect storm” of mass casualties. Party goers attending these events are said to be taking extra strong MDMA – commonly known as Ecstasy – with purity levels not seen since the drug took off in the late 1980s rave scene.

Claire Dean, a drug counselling spokeswoman for Lifeline said the class A drug, also referred to as ecstasy, had become so strong it was leaving students “walking around like glass” with comedowns lasting as long as 4 days.

“It is a danger to promising student careers. These drugs in the strength we are now seeing have a four-day comedown period; these kids are walking around like glass, unable to function.”

Last year the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction warned that dangerously pure ecstasy pills and MDMA crystals were feeding a recent EU-wide resurgence in their use.

Tracy McCann, Newcastle City Council’s lead practitioner for anti-social behaviour, spoke out about the “super-parties” where some students are taking the drugs.

“It started at the end of the exam period last year when we began getting calls about very large scale parties with hundreds of people attending,” she told the Daily Mail.

“There were security men on the doors and the exits were being blocked with sofas and mattresses. The parties were being widely promoted on social media. Across the country it has become the way students choose to party. They don’t want to spend their money going out to clubs when, in their eyes, they can do it their own way at home”.

“But the dangers from so many factors are obvious and we are acting before we have a mass casualty incident to deal with” she added.