Wellington  - At least 50 people were arrested as students rioted for a second night in New Zealand's university city of Dunedin, news reports said Sunday.

Police donned riot gear as drunken students threw bottles, set fire to furniture in the streets and created general disorder in the three hours after midnight, Radio New Zealand reported.

Twenty people were arrested on Friday night following the arrival in Dunedin of carloads of students from Canterbury University in Christchurch, 360 kilometres to the north, on an annual pub crawl that has caused mass disturbances in the past.

The event, dubbed the Undie 500 because only cars worth less than 500 New Zealand dollars (350 US dollars) participate, was cancelled last year after it resulted in 69 arrests the previous year.

Dunedin Mayor Peter Chin, who has repeatedly called for the Undie 500 to be cancelled, said it was nothing but a "drunken pub crawl" and blamed Christchurch students for the mayhem.

But police said most of those arrested and charged with disorderly behaviour, breaching a liquor ban and starting fires on Friday night, went to Dunedin's University of Otago. (dpa)