Fighting and flashing mar Rag Week (From Wilts and Gloucestershire Standard)

Fighting and flashing mar Rag Week

STUDENTS from Cirencester's prestigious Royal Agricultural College were arrested after wreaking mayhem during their annual charity fundraising week.

A mass brawl between foreign and British students left one man in hospital and three potentially facing charges.

In other incidents, a 21-year-old man was fined for indecent exposure after flashing at motorists and one group of female students is alleged to have run amok while topless through a town centre store.

The college says it is disappointed the incidents have overshadowed what was a hugely successful Rag Week -raising more than £20,000 for worthy causes.

A college spokesman said: "News of some incidents involving students around the town during Rag Week have been reported back to the college.

"We very much regret these and students involved in these incidents have been reprimanded.

"However, the vast majority of students behaved with decorum and worked hard in the spirit of Rag events nationwide to help raise money for worthwhile causes."

Rag Week is an opportunity for students to raise money for worthy causes through a series of events, many involving high jinx.

Last year some £20,000 was raised for the Cirencester Volunteer Bureau, while this year, most of the money will go to the Riding for the Disabled Association and a portion to the Asian tsunami appeal.

However, things got off to a controversial start last Tuesday when motorists began complaining that students were exposing themselves to passing vehicles on Cirencester's Tetbury Road roundabout.

One man was arrested and fined but this was followed two days later by a mass brawl in the town's Brewery car park among people studying at the college.

Police say a 20-year-old man from Wales was taken to hospital with cuts, bruises and concussion and three men - aged 19, 20 and 23 - were later arrested on suspicion of assault and bailed until March 22.

Officers are also searching for two students who ran off without paying for a taxi after being dropped off at the college at around 1.20am on Friday.

And the Standard also received reports about a group of female students, dressed only in their knickers, running around a town store.

Meanwhile, another group was reprimanded after going to the rival Harper Adams University College in Newport, Shropshire, during the week armed with weedkiller.

They are believed to have written messages on the rival college's rugby pitch by killing the grass with the weedkiller.

Harper Adams student manager Bryony Allsop confirmed that an incident had taken place, although details are vague, but she added: "No permanent damage has been caused. We certainly don't treat it as a criminal offence. It's been dealt with internally."

The RAC spokesman added: "The college values its relationship with the people of Cirencester, many of whom work among our 200 full and part-time staff on the campus.

"Our staff, combined with our student body, contribute significantly to the local economy both in financial terms and in the work they do for the local community.

"In addition to the Rag funds raised by the student body, our postgraduate students have been developing an environmental area for Powell's Primary School, for example.

"When incidents are reported we take immediate and appropriate disciplinary action with the students but we can only act where we receive any such reports. We have close contact and a good working relationship with the local police."