Apr 07, 2014 10:01 AM EDT By Russell Westerholm, UniversityHerald Reporter

A massive and unauthorized spring break party near the University of California - Santa Barbara (UCSB) got far too out of hand and ended in a violent mess.

According to KABC, some 15,000 people partook in an event called Deltopia, a street party in Isla Vista. UCSB and other area colleges make up the party every year, but this year the attendees began turning violent with police officers, with each other and even with traffic signs.

Authorities said police responded to reports of two stabbings before eight p.m., the point at which the party escalated. Before that, police already made 56 arrests and 49 citations. Possibly more than 44 people were taken to hospitals for injuries and alcohol poisoning.

After police responded to the stabbing reports, the crowd flew out of control. Police officers from UCSB and from the city said they had bottles thrown at them, one was cut with broken glass, one was hit with a bag of liquor bottles and another had a brick thrown his way. The crowd even tore traffic signs from their normal position and lit mattresses on fire.

The police were not able to stop the riotous group until around 1 a.m. after they had already used tear gas, pepper spray and rubber bullets to try and quell the partygoers.

"It knocked him down, split his forehead open to the point that he needed extensive suturing," Santa Barbara County Sheriff Bill Brown told KTLA of the university officer who was struck with a bag full of liquor bottles.

The Sheriff's spokeswoman Kelly Hoover told the Associated Press police have responded to unruly crowds before, but none like this.

"It was an emergency situation where we had to call in mutual aid," Hoover said. "They have had civil disturbances before in Isla Vista, but it has been many years since something like this.

"Deltopia attracts out-of-towners who come in and are not invested in our community and there are some who come to cause trouble."

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