Police arrest 150 ‘unruly’ teenagers after thousands gather for TikTok star’s birthday

The crowd vandalised shops, hurled fireworks, rocks, and bottles at the police

More than 150 people were arrested after a crowd of around 2,500 assembled for a TikTok influencer’s birthday party in California’s Huntington Beach, creating a ruckus, including hurling fireworks and rocks at the police.

The party which took place on Saturday was declared an unlawful assembly by the police as they struggled to disperse and control the crowd -- mostly teens and youngsters -- eventually leading to 150 arrests, among which 28 were juveniles.

A teenager named Adrian uploaded a video on TikTok, a popular short video app, inviting people to his weekend bonfire party near lifeguard station 13 at Huntington Beach State Park. “BYOE” text over the video read -- “Bring your own everything.”

The invitation video, which has now been deleted, was viewed millions of times and the hashtag “AdriansKickBack” received more than 234 million views on TikTok, leading to thousands of people showing up for the gathering, some even from other states.

Aerial screenshot on crowd of thousands gathered for TikTok influencer’s birthday party, which led to an overnight ruckus on Saturday (AP)

Police said they were aware of the video post and expected the gathering, and at least 400 people had already shown up on Friday. Huntington Beach’s police department posted on Twitter the next day warning that they will enforce local rules, including no alcohol or drug use on the beach and no fireworks.

However, the gathering went out of hand when the crowd became “unruly” and began vandalising shops, hurling fireworks, rocks, bottles etc at the police and climbing on top of lifeguard stations.

“The initial crowd at the beach grew in size and moved to the downtown area where it was estimated to be over 2,500,” the Huntington Beach Police Department said in a statement.

“As the crowd size continued to grow rapidly, large groups disbursed into various locations throughout the area, throwing bottles, rocks, fireworks, and other items at officers,” the statement further said. “At that time, the HBPD requested assistance from outside agencies.”

“Throughout the course of the evening, over 150 officers from virtually all agencies within Orange County were deployed to Huntington Beach, based on the pre-arranged request for assistance,” it said.

The police issued an emergency curfew between 11:30 pm Saturday and 5:30 am on Sunday morning for parts of Huntington Beach. They managed to control the crowd and no injuries have been reported.