Once it was an innocent trickle from a small plastic water pistol or a water-filled balloon. Then came the water-fight arms race with its Super Soaker pump-action shotguns, 12m firing ranges and nine-litre backpacks. And it all went really nuclear when social networks were deployed to create "splash mobs".
The water fight's graduation from summery fun to riot was sealed last week when 250 people gathered for a splash mob at Kensington Gardens in London. The Facebook-organised jape got out of hand when one man attacked a woman who dowsed him in coloured liquid, passersby were "accidentally" splashed and horse-riding children were injured after being thrown from their mounts.
While some participants complained the police overreacted in arresting nine people, you could understand the authorities' wariness: earlier this month Frederick Moody Boateng, 18, was stabbed to death in London after a row thought to have been triggered by a water fight earlier that day
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