POLICE crews were forced to deploy CS gas while an officer was attacked after a group of up to 30 ran riot in a field.

Officers were called to reports of a disturbance at Orange Road - next to the Smallgains field - in Canvey at about 8pm on Friday night.

Essex Police attended to disperse the crowd and discovered a group of about 20 to 30 people at the site.

Further officers were called to the scene for back up.

One of the officers was forced to deploy CS gas while it is believed a member of the policing team was attacked.

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Dave Blackwell, councillor for Canvey Central, has slammed those responsible and says such behaviour will not be tolerated.

He said: “The whole incident got really out of hand. I know there were about a dozen police cars, police vans and I believe a police dog was out there too.

“It’s absolutely disgraceful and I must admit I was quite shocked. I only live two minutes away.

“This is normally somewhere people would take their dogs or get the kids out for a bit of fresh air, but it’s pretty scary for the residents to hear about - understandable when this is their home.

“It wasn’t even late at night either.

“To attack a police officer is just absolutely unbelievable.

“We cannot and will not condone this type of behaviour and we can’t see this happen again.”

Two teenagers, aged 14 and 16, were arrested by police.

A 16-year-old boy was arrested on suspicion of assault on an emergency worker and breach of the peace and was further arrested on suspicion of possession of drugs.

A 14-year-old boy was arrested on suspicion of a public order offence.

They have been released under investigation.

Mr Blackwell believes additional CCTV in the area would be beneficial, helping deter any further incidents from occurring.

He continued: “I understand this happened by the hall and I know lots of kids get round there and cause trouble.

“The hall has suffered a lot of damage over the years, which is especially dreadful when they do so much community work in there and elderly groups use it.

“Seeing this sort of thing would have scared the living daylights out of them.”

If you have information, call Essex Police on 101 and quote incident 1181 of April 23.