Police could bring more people before the courts in connection with the "riot" in Hamilton in the early hours of New Years' Day once they have trawled through camera footage with a fine tooth comb.

Both Police and the Corporation of Hamilton yesterday praised the role of CCTV cameras, which filmed the entire two-hour fracas on Front Street, and clearly showed those involved.

Four people have already appeared in Magistrates' Court charged with a variety of offences relating to Wednesday's ruckus, including possession of offensive weapons, unlawfully obstructing Police officers, and affray.

Police spokesman Dwayne Caines said: "Police officers will be going over the entire footage with a view to seeing if there are any other individuals that should be brought before the courts, as a result of what is seen.

"They will be going through it carefully, so we could see more people in court."

Trouble kicked off on Front Street, near to the junction of Parliament Street, at about 2.30 a.m. as thousands of New Year revellers celebrated the start of 2003 in the City centre.

Unofficial reports are that the fight was between town and country youths.

Within minutes, about 40 officers, including members of the Police Support Unit in riot gear, were on the scene and battling with the swelling 1,000-plus crowd in a bid to bring calm to the area.

However, some people have criticised Police for taking too long to bring the situation under control - and claimed too few people were arrested at the time.

But that has been denied by the Service.

Mother Judith Burgess, whose daughter had been celebrating her wedding at nearby No.1 Shed when troubled flared, said she did not believe Police had over-reacted, but felt they were not effective enough.

"They were trying to break it up, but they should just have put people in their cars," she said.

"Instead of removing people who were fighting, Police were attempting to sort it out on the street, which, of course, wasn't working.

"Then, as things stayed out of control, they started taking everyone."

And the daughter of the bride claimed that, in the end, the Police were taking the wrong people.

Terral Burgess said: "They were taking the wrong people - that's why they don't have the people that started it."

But Mr. Caines said officers did extremely well, under the circumstances, and prevented the incident from getting any worse.

He refused to say how many officers were on duty across the Island over the New Year period, or how many attended the scene, but said it was a "full complement of officers".

"I think the officers exercised tremendous restraint," he said.

"One of the challenges in public disorder is making decisions as it pertains to those on the scene, deciding who is there as a spectator and who is there to cause trouble. On this occasion, there were an awful lot of spectators.

"Police had to be very cautious as to how they carried out their duties. It was incumbent on officers to exercise sound crowd control methods. Also, the main instigators in the incident were arrested."

Mr. Caines said the Police response was so immediate partly due to the fact that Front Street was wired with CCTV cameras and operators were able to watch the trouble unfold.

He said P.c. Ervin Hendrickson dispatched officers as soon as he saw the fighting kick off, and was able to distribute them to the prime locations.

"CCTV played a key role in assisting Police with the disturbance," added Mr. Caines.

"The operators of the CCTV recognised there was a fracas and dispatched people straight away. The cameras acted as the eyes of the Police Service and the system enabled officers to keep an eye on the different trouble spots and then get help to the particular areas needed."

Secretary of the Corporation of Hamilton Roger Sherratt also praised the CCTV cameras, and Police.

"We would like to take this opportunity to praise the Police for their extremely quick action in dealing with what was clearly a potentially serious situation.

"By all accounts, they arrived at the scene within minutes, if not seconds, of the outbreak of fighting, and they were apparently able to specifically target those people who were causing the problems.

"Their quick actions probably helped to make sure the situation did not escalate completely out of control. Congratulations to the Police on a job well done."

In responding to the criticisms, Mr. Caines said all of the officers were trained in dealing with public disorder at various levels, and he said members of the PSU underwent training at least once a month.

He added: "All of the hot spots around the Island were covered. We were hoping for the best, but were prepared for the worst."