FACTBOX: Internet invites spawn wild teen parties

(Reuters) - An Australian teenager is facing a possible A$20,000 (US$18,000) bill from the police on Tuesday after a weekend party that he posted on MySpace attracted 500 guests who attacked officers and damaged property in Melbourne.

Here are some other cases over recent months where teen parties posted on social networking sites such as MySpace Facebook and YouTube, have spun out of control and hit headlines:

* CANADA, NOV 2007: A 17-year-old girl's birthday party turns sour in Montreal when more than 100 people who hear of the small bash through Facebook and text message turn up. Leaving a trail of empty beer bottles, cigarette butts, smashed plants and an injured guest who has to be taken to hospital, the gatecrashers also make off with passports, CDs and cosmetics.

* ENGLAND, OCT 2007: A teenager in the southwest town of Chippenham, in Wiltshire, and his father need medical treatment after trying to fight off drunken youths who crash a birthday party they see advertised on video sharing Website Youtube. Eighteen-year-old university student Stephen Worthy suffers a spinal injury while his father's nose is broken. Six teens among the 100 troublemakers are arrested.

* ENGLAND, APRIL 2007: Gatecrashers travel the length of the country from London to north-eastern Sunderland, to create havoc at a get-together posted on a MySpace page by a 17-year-old girl. Rooms are ransacked and a wedding dress urinated on, with total damages estimated at 20,000 pounds ($39,170). The teen claims her Internet MySpace page was hacked by gatecrashers, and that she had invited only a few friends. However local press report that she had advertised the party as "let's trash the average family-sized house disco party".

Source: Reuters

(Writing by Shahida Patail; Editing by Alex Richardson)