Police make 16 arrests over '˜busy weekend'

Local police dealt with more than 240 calls and made 16 arrests over the St Patrick's weekend, it has been revealed.

Between Friday, March 16 and Sunday, March 18, local officers responded to 35 incidents of anti-social behaviour, 17 assaults, 12 road traffic collisions and 33 “concerns for safety” calls.

According to a report posted on the PSNI Cookstown and Magherafelt Facebook pages, the annual St Patrick’s Day parades “went smoothly”, but officers still had “a busy weekend”.

One of the major incidents officers were called to was a brawl at a ‘marquee party’ at the Dunleath Bar in Cookstown, shortly after 11pm on Saturday night.

Six people were arrested at the scene for assault and a range of public order offences.

The PSNI’s Facebook post said the “bar fight” had “required significant police resources to quell”.

“Those involved were arrested and will be facing a judge soon enough,” the post said.

“As well as calls received we detected and stopped individuals for drugs, street urination, drink driving and motoring offences including driving with no insurance.

“In addition to the above we provided traffic management and beat policing at all the St Patrick’s Day parades in F District on Saturday. All parades went smoothly and everyone we spoke to enjoyed a good if somewhat cold day,” it added.