THE city council has apologised after a huge crowd surge on Magdalen Bridge caused distress to some revellers celebrating May Morning.

Record attendance on Monday of about 27,000 people at the otherwise successful event in Oxford was blamed for the crowd surge, which is thought to have lasted up to 15 minutes.

As choristers in Magdalen Tower finished their performance of the Hymnus Eucharisticus, people were pressed tightly against each other on the bridge as large groups tried to move in opposite directions at the same time.

Oxford City Council has stressed no one was injured or arrested but said it wanted to apologise to those who 'experienced distress'.

The authority is examining CCTV footage to review what happened and said it had not yet decided whether it would introduce changes.

Tim Sadler, the council's executive director for sustainable city, said: "We would like to say sorry to those people who experienced distress due to the large crowds on Magdalen Bridge."

He said they had 'experienced unexpected crowd movements' as people trying to leave towards East Oxford encountered those wanting to come into the city from The Plain Roundabout, creating an 'impasse' on the bridge.

He added: "We were able to alleviate the situation by introducing a contingency contraflow system, in line with our event plan, but the crowd was not able to move out of the area as quickly as we would have liked and some people were distressed as a result."

Mr Sadler said they were looking at what happened and how improvements could be made for future events.

Photographer Ellie Blake, who was on the bridge during the event, said: "My friend has claustrophobia and started having a panic attack whilst we were in the middle of the crowd.

"It was such a struggle to get her out because people were walking each way and pushing the people in the middle and squishing them so much that they couldn't breath – the crowd pushed me so much that I lifted off the ground.

"I'm really surprised that someone hadn't died or got seriously injured."

And Cian Ó Concubhair, a graduate researcher at Oxford University, added: "There was a lot of pushing. It was so packed that if there was an extra pressure a lot of people could have been in trouble."

Police spokesman Gareth Ford-Lloyd said the event had passed 'without incident'.

The city council has officially managed May Morning celebrations, which were previously organised by no one authority, since 2011.