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A chaotic floating carnival left a trail of devastation along the Regent’s Canal at the weekend when the unlicensed event spiralled out of control.

Thousands of alcohol-fuelled revellers, many in fancy dress, ignored last minute efforts to cancel Saturday’s “Canalival” party in East London on safety grounds and filled the watercourse with inflatable boats.

The rowdy flotilla - described as “an exercise in British eccentricity” - made its way from the the midday start at Gainsborough studios in Hoxton to the Broadway Market in Hackney until finally breaking up at around 8am on Sunday.

But horrified residents woke up to find shattered glass littering the towpath, dingies abandoned in the waterway and communal gardens abused as makeshift toilets.

Teacher Bill Bolloten, 54, who lives in London Wharf overlooking the canal, said: “The area was left in an unspeakably appalling state. People had lobbed bottles into the water, destroyed some of the wildlife and left an unbelievable amount of rubbish in the canal.

“People were openly urinating and defecating in the area – a small community garden that children had been planting flowers in had been totally destroyed.”

Graham Hindley, chairman of the Regent’s Wharf residents association, said: “It started out as a bit of fun but the whole thing snowballed into an event that no-one could control.

“They showed a complete disregard for the neighbourhood. There was rubbish everywhere and it was, quite frankly, shocking that people can do this sort of thing.”

The Canal and River Trust said it had raised its “serious concerns” about the “inadequate planning” and had not given permission for the carnival, which started last year as an alternative to the Diamond Jubilee flotilla on the the Thames.

The organisers posted a cancellation notice on Friday before warning that “due to the unprecedented popularity of the event we are no longer able to provide adequate safety measures or secure the confidence of the authorities.” They admitted they had not been able to secure insurance because the police would not provide support.

However, the decision appeared to have little impact on the numbers who turned up. One participant, student Tristan White, said on the event’s official Facebook page: “It’s not yours to cancel. This is a people’s festival.”

Yesterday an appeal for helpers for a massive clean up operation appeared to have been largely successful in clearing away the worst of the mess.