DRUNKEN teenagers caused mayhem on the beach at Chalkwell including throwing glass bottles at police officers and spiking people’s drinks.

Essex Police have stated more than two dozen officers had to be drafted in to deal with between 1,500 and 2,000 children on Chalkwell beach last night.

Police said teenagers from five different schools had gone out to celebrate finishing their GCSE exams, with some getting so drunk they required medical attention.

Dozens of bottles of alcohol were confiscated, and several teenagers were arrested and taken back to their homes.

Sharing the news on their Southend Facebook page, a spokesman for the police said: “There were in the region of 1500 to 2000 kids down near the beach in Chalkwell and around 100 to 150 in Thorpe Bay.

“Whilst its clearly and exciting time for the kids finishing school exams and taking their next step in life, it's not really acceptable to go and get smashed on the beach!

“It's not acceptable to throw bottles at Police Officers and PCSOs, it's not acceptable to cause disruption to other people, and it's not acceptable to spike other people's drinks.

“We confiscated a lot of alcohol from the kids, many of those kids when told it was going asked us if their parents could come and collect it as they bought it for them.

“Southend CPT would just like to remind parents that it's an offence to purchase alcohol for someone under the age of 18 years.

“There were many kids around that as the evening went on became so drunk or suffered medical problems through drink or drugs that we had to call the ambulance service on several occasions and we all know how busy they are.

“We also had to make some arrests for kids who were drunk and disorderly or causing public order issues, these kids were lucky to have been taken home and not to the cells.”

The Southend Police Town Vulnerability team also reported that cannabis, laughing gas, and a knife were seized.

Police resources that had to be brought in included the Southend community policing team, Special Constables, the operational support group and an Inspector, totalling around 25 officers and PCSOs across several locations.

The spokesman added: “It's totally unacceptable for this to happen, massive drain on our resources.

“Massive thanks to Team Essex Police for pulling together, thanks to #SouthendBCCSO for helping out and MASSIVE thanks to the ambulance service.”

All of the alcohol seized on the night will be destroyed.