Facebook party spins out of control

Check your Facebook privacy settings before posting a party invitation. Thessa, a 16-year-old from Hamburg-Bramfeld, learned that lesson the hard way.

Thessa had only wanted to invite a few friends to her 16th birthday at her home. But she forgot to mark the Facebook invitation as private, and the event went viral: some 15,000 people clicked to confirm they would attend. A cancellation notice she posted was cheerfully ignored.

On Friday night, between 1,400 and 1,600 strangers descended on the quiet suburban street. Thessa herself fled the house before the crowd arrived and went into hiding. More than 1,000 people partied outside from about 7 pm until 2 am. Police deployed around 100 officers, four of them on horseback, cordoned off the house, and detained 11 people for scuffles, resisting arrest, minor property damage, and at least one explosives-law violation. Firefighters put out two small fires. A police officer was injured, and several partygoers in flip-flops cut their feet on broken glass.

"It was by and large a peaceful party," Hamburg police spokesman Mirko Streiber said. "We had cordoned off the house, some 100 police were on the ground, four of them on horses, but that did not keep the kids from celebrating. The party was a hit."

It may have been the largest unorganized birthday party Hamburg had ever seen. And somewhere in the city, a 16-year-old was waiting for the whole thing to be over so she could go home.