drug raids along Court Street.

Task Force officers decided to head back to Hamilton Police Station when bottles came raining down on them from the windows of the first floor of the Spinning Wheel nightclub.

One Policeman was hit on the head by one of the bottles when the violence flared at around 2 a.m. on Saturday.

But a Police spokeswoman said the officer suffered only swelling to the side of his face and a cut inside his mouth.

The Police had been on Court Street as part of an operation to clamp down on drug dealing.

The spokeswoman said the Task Force carried out "a number of drug searches'' and "arrested a number of persons'' during the raids.

But she added: "While one prisoner was being placed in the Police vehicle, a bottle was thrown out of an open window of one of the buildings.

"A second followed and hit one of the Police officers on the side of the face. As a result of the hostile crowd and bottles being thrown, officers withdrew.

"The injured officer received only swelling to the side of his face and a cut to the inside of his mouth.'' Spinning Wheel owner Charles Burgess was unavailable for comment last night.

Crowd forces task force to withdraw A man answering the club's office telephone said last night: "There's nobody here who can talk to you about that.'' Detectives are now appealing for witnesses to the chaos to call Hamilton Police Station on 295-0011.

CID officers are also hunting thieves who organised two hotel break-ins and a theft from a building site.

Burglars stole into a room at Edgehill Guest House in Rosemont Avenue, Pembroke and stole cash, credit cards and other personal items overnight on Wednesday.

Two visitors at Loughlands on South Road, Paget, awoke at 4 a.m. on Saturday to find cash and cheques stolen.

And two wooden benches, a green canvas tent and metal frame were stolen from a public works job site at Daniel's Head.

The builders, reinforcing an embankment at the junction of Long Bay Lane and Daniel's Head, reported the crime on Thursday morning.

CRIME CRM