PRISON cells in Wiltshire were full to bursting over New Year as high-spirited celebrations marking the start of 2004 turned ugly.

Police were called to deal with domestic disturbances, drunken street fights, drug offences, knife-wielding vandals and a streaker, as New Year festivities turned chaotic.

There were no spare cells in the county as New Year's Day got into full swing, with the divisional police headquarters in Melksham taking in 31 prisoners in just a few hours.

Street brawls broke out in Castle Street, Trowbridge, and High Street, Melksham, in the early hours of New Year's Day, while Warminster experienced a similar violent outburst involving soldiers from nearby barracks.

Two soldiers were arrested and released on bail following the incident in Market Place around 11pm.

A fight broke out in the Swan Hotel, Bradford on Avon, which spilled into Church Street, leaving a police officer injured. Four men were arrested in the town following violent incidents.

Ecstasy tablets were seized from a reveller at Buds in Chippenham, while a vandal armed with a knife was reportedly seen breaking into cars in Talbot Road, Trowbridge.

Police have condemned the thuggish behaviour, which led to injuries to several officers.

Chief Inspector Nick Maslen said police were given a busy time.

"It is absolutely unacceptable that during this period several officers were injured," he said.

"Yet again a minority of people demonstrated that they have no concern for others or other people's property and did resort to excessive and inappropriate use of alcohol, which led to domestic disputes, fights, injury and disruption of others. On the whole the majority of licensed premises again behaved responsibly and although there were some incidents in licensed premises, it only represented a small proportion."

CCTV operators called in police after spotting what they thought was a semi-naked woman in Trowbridge park, but when officers arrived it turned out to be a woman in a see-through top drenched by a New Year downpour.

Insp Jon Tapper, who was on patrol in Trowbridge during the night, said most of the incidents were sparked purely by drunken foolishness.

He said: "It was mostly alcohol-related behaviour. People were either disagreeing in the streets with each other or with us.

"It was not attributed to one place or one venue, it was just general drunkenness."