A St. Patrick’s day reveller who tried to relieve himself outside a busy house party Friday had to be rescued after tumbling down a ravine.

It was one of the more dramatic moments, on one of the biggest student party days of the year in London, a city that’s cracked down on unruly student behaviour since a flaming St. Patrick’s Day riot five years ago gave the city a black eye.

Friday, a beefed-up police presence was visible throughout the day around Western University, Fanshawe College and the downtown area.

Officers kept a close eye on Broughdale Avenue, a dead-end street near the Western campus with a history of drawing huge crowds on St. Patrick’s Day and during the school’s annual homecoming celebration.

The ravine mishap happened around 3:30 p.m., outside a fraternity house on Ridout Street where hundreds of green-clad revellers had gathered.

Firefighters were called in to retrieve the injured man, who’d fallen down a steep embankment leading to Harris Park.

Emergency responders carried the bloodied man to an ambulance as onlookers cheered.

“A male was brought to hospital with a possible head injury,” said London police Const. Michelle Kasper.

The call ended the afternoon party.

Nearly a dozen officers cleared out the large house, sending hundreds of young people spilling into the street.

London has also cracked down on so-called ‘brewfing,’ or gatherings on rooftops of people drinking.

Kasper, who tweeted the movements of police during the day, said there were no major incidents to report by Friday afternoon.

Partiers posed for selfies with patrolling police officers who broke up a handful of parties after the gatherings began growing too large.

Unlike in past years, when police seized more than a dozen kegs from house parties, Kasper said there weren’t any such seizures on Friday.

Over on Fleming Drive, near Fanshawe’s main campus, scene of the notorious 2012 St. Patrick’s Day riot whose images boomeranged around the world through the Internet, things were especially quiet except for a few small get-togethers.

It was a far cry from five years earlier, when, in unseasonably warm weather, thousands of revellers, many of them Fanshawe students, ripped down fences, set fire to a TV news truck and rained down bottles and other debris as authorities tried to quell the mayhem.

In the lead-up to Friday, student leaders had urged revellers to stay safe and be respectful on St. Patrick’s Day.

Police also said they were monitoring social media and would crash any big parties.

dcarruthers@postmedia.com

twitter.com/DaleatLFPress