St Patrick's Day: Police clear crowds at Belfast's Botanic Gardens

Crowds in Botanic Park were cleared in less than an hour

Police were called to clear crowds of young people from Botanic Gardens in south Belfast on Wednesday.

Hundreds of young people had gathered in the open park on St Patrick's Day.

However, when officers were called to the scene on Wednesday afternoon, it took less than an hour for the area to be cleared.

PSNI Ass Ch Con Alan Todd had urged parents to ask their children and young adults to "return home".

Speaking on BBC Radio Ulster's Evening Extra programme he said: "There have been people out and enjoying themselves - by and large, people have heeded the messaging from ourselves, from politicians and civic leaders in terms of how they've conducted themselves.

"While places have seen steady footfall and traffic flows, by and large the vast majority of people have done so responsibly."

He added: "Of course a few haven't, we've had to turn a number of people away at different points, we've had to introduce traffic controls just to manage traffic flows in some areas and regrettably we've had a couple of early days in terms of house parties and a small number of tickets have been issued there as well.

On Wednesday evening there was a heavy police presence patrolling the Holyland in Belfast's university area to ensure Covid regulations are complied with and to break up house parties.

PSNI patrolling the Holyland in Belfast on Wednesday evening

Meanwhile in the Republic of Ireland, 21 people were arrested at anti-lockdown protests in Dublin.

It comes as part of a Gardaí (Irish police) operation to prevent planned lockdown protests, which were being planned on social media.

Thirteen men and three women arrested by 15:00 GMT on Wednesday.

Ten people have been charged and were due to appear before a sitting of Dublin District Court on Wednesday afternoon.

More than 2,500 Gardaí have been deployed at checkpoints and arterial routes across the country.