Magaluf Resort Bans Drinking On The Streets

Officials in Magaluf say they are going to ban tourists from late-night drinking in the streets.

Town hall bosses from the Majorcan resort are introducing new rules in the hope that drunken sex scandals will be no more.

The prohibition will come into force from 1 May when police will have the power to confiscate drink from tourists on the street between the hours of 10pm and 8am.

Shops, too, will not be able to sell alcohol between midnight and 8am.

The authorities will also be clamping down on pub crawls, allowing organisers to hold only one per day between 8pm and midnight, with a maximum of 20 people taking part.

There will be also fines for anyone involved in "balconing", a craze where someone jumps off a balcony and which has led to the deaths of a number of tourists.

A town hall spokesman said: "The common aim here is reaching agreements that give maximum guarantees over the security and quality of services tourists to Magaluf receive, to improve Magaluf's image as a tourist destination in national and international markets."

The resort, popular with teenagers and young adults, became notorious last year when it was revealed that a 21-year-old woman from County Armagh had performed sex acts on 24 men in exchange for drink during a pub crawl on the Punta Ballena strip.

A video of the incident went viral, the bar involved was fined and closed for 12 months and pub crawl organisers told they must apply for a licence if they wanted to keep running the events.

In another scandal, a police chief and two members of his staff were arrested in September on suspicion of running an extortion racket in the resort.

The arrests followed complaints from local businessmen who said police had been demanding cash from bar owners in exchange for tipping them off ahead of raids.