Fewer lager louts at Oktoberfest, but record number tried to steal mugs

Tens of thousands of revellers who tried to steal beer mugs have set a new record for naughtiness at Oktoberfest, Germany's annual lager and lederhosen extravaganza, Bavarian police said.

While crime dropped at this year's festival in Munich, police said orderlies confiscated 112,000 of the traditional one-litre "Masskrug" beer mugs from "souvenir hunters" trying to smuggle them out of the fairgrounds - up from 81,000 last year.

Munich police hailed as "very gratifying" an almost 40 per cent drop in so-called "beer mug brawls" fuelled by the 6.5 million litres of beer that flowed during the 16-day festival, which ended on Sunday.

In one bizarre incident, a 44-year-old man on a haunted house ride jumped out of his ghost train carriage and demolished an evil spirit puppet, German news agency DPA reported.

Even so, the amount of beer consumed was slightly below last year's, amid cooler weather, but was still enough to fill over 2-1/2 Olympic swimming pools.

Overall, there were 1,290 reported offences at what claims to be the world's biggest folk festival. The event was attended by an estimated 6.3 million people this year, with 720 arrests - 39 fewer than in 2013.

However, authorities expressed worry over violent resistance put up by many of those detained, which left 13 officers wounded with "everything from bite wounds to injuries from kicks".