HUNDREDS of residents have joined an impassioned online debate over drunken revellers in York city centre, with some recounting horror stories about appalling behaviour on Saturday night.

Many have demanded a series of tough measures after claiming to witness 'disgusting' scenes, including yobs staggering, bawling, jumping on vehicles, littering, vomiting and urinating in the streets.

One resident filmed a long trail of blood along Micklegate on Sunday morning, which they said was spilled during the Saturday revels and which can be seen here. 

But a minority has insisted the problems are no worse in York than anywhere else, and claimed people should be more tolerant.

The Press asked readers to give their views yesterday after several expressed their concerns over drunken behaviour on Saturday night, and more than 200 had responded by last night on our website, Facebook and Twitter.

Posts ands tweets included:

*"Seeing a man being sick into some flowers in the beer garden of the Guy Fawkes last night at 7pm, I have to agree that things are out of hand. People were eating. It was disgusting."

* "Yesterday was an absolute nightmare in town... hordes of drunks still waiting around station for bus to racecourse at 2pm. Plenty more staggering along trying to walk it, in and out of the road.. also more than enough hen /stag groups just shouting and bawling."

*"The stag capital that York has become stops us spending an evening in our beautiful city."

*"I walked through last night as I live near town and honestly it was gross. Outside McDonald's was particularly bad; there was litter literally everywhere."

*"The increasing number of stag and hen parties descending on York every weekend has turned our beautiful city into a British version of Magaluf. I love a night out but York is getting seriously bad."

*"It's not just on race days, the other week a drunken 40something lady staggered over, nearly wiping out my 4yr old as we walked in Parliament st at 4.30pm!"

*"I fear for my life now on a night out."

"Last night was certainly the worst I've ever seen it. Just for starters, the amount of litter left strewn all over the place was off the scale - looked like the end of a music festival."

*"I was waiting to unload my car to play a gig in O’Neills last night when a drunken ******** decided to run up and jump on my car bonnet." 

A woman also claimed she saw three men urinating in the street.

A person who said they were a retail manager in Coney Street claimed the problems had got worse over the past 12 years, adding: "We now adjust targets down on Saturdays as we know after 2:30 Coney St is a very unpleasant place to be."

But one man tweeted: "Ha ha, they must have been in the wrong part of York, as where I was it was the same as a normal sat, if not quieter."

And a woman posted: "Why can't u just leave people to have fun? It will be the same in every city on a weekend."

Solutions to problems suggested by residents included a tourist tax at hotels on Friday and Saturday nights, with the revenue generated recycled into policing, street cleaning, street angels and temporary toilets, and also better policing of licensed premises over the serving of already drunk people and a ban on stag and hen parties.

Their comments came as one police officer revealed just how stretched North Yorkshire Police were on Saturday night, tweeting: "Yesterday evening was extremely demanding for NYorksPolice, with some incidents still being dealt with ...as I write this. Big shout out to NYP Control Room for keeping us all safe and sound."

The Press thanks residents for all their comments and will put them to City of York Council, North Yorkshire Police, the Police and Crime Commissioner Julia Mulligan and the destination management organisation Make it York, which runs Visit York, and will report their responses in due course.