Riot in Dutch town after schoolgirl's birthday invite on Facebook goes viral

A birthday party invitation that went viral on Facebook ended in rioting after thousands of revellers descended on Haren, a small town in The Netherlands.

Schoolgirl Merthe Weusthuis wanted to organise a quiet birthday party at her family home in Haren for the small group of friends she wanted to invite for her 16th birthday. However, when she sent out invitations via Facebook, she made one mistake ­– Forgot to mark the event as ‘private’.

According to The Telegraph, as details of the party began to circulate, it was accepted by thousands, and on Weusthuis’s birthday night, the event turned into a large-scale disturbance, with nearly 5,000 gatecrashers clashing with the riot police that had to be posted outside their house.

The party became known as ‘Project X Haren’, inspired by the film ‘Project X’, in which three high school students throw a birthday party which spirals out of control. According to the report, Merthe’s father, Coen Weusthuis, a management consultant, told her to remove her Facebook invitation and call off the party, but the momentum proved unstoppable.

Fearing a likely outcome, Dutch police were put on high alert, as thousands of teenagers, many drinking beer and spirits, began gathering around the house. By evening, tensions increased when it became apparent that there was no party for the crowd to gatecrash. Violence broke out and 500 riot police were deployed, with officers equipped with helmets, shields and batons and attempted to clear the rioters away from the property.

The disturbances spilled over into Haren’s town centre, where shops were vandalised and looted, journalists attacked, a car was set on fire, other vehicles overturned and street signs and lampposts damaged. “My team had to confront aggression seldom seen in the Netherlands,” Haren’s chief police superintendent Oscar Dros said.