BATON ROUGE — Deputies used pepper balls to break up crowds after several fights broke out on LSU's campus following Saturday's football game.

According to the East Baton Rouge Sheriff's Office, LSU Police asked the agency and other law enforcement groups to stay on campus after Saturday's 11 a.m. game against Mississippi State to help with a gathering involving thousands of people. Officers from multiple agencies worked to handle disturbances, maintain order, and disperse crowds.

Deputies said multiple fights broke out around 4:30 p.m. Saturday near the Pentagon and Greek theater area as hundreds of spectators gathered around and encouraged the violence. They said the crowd also surrounded responding officers and kept them from safely reaching the people involved.

That led members of the EBRSO SWAT team, who were helping LSU Police deploy pepper balls into the ground to disperse the crowd, according to the sheriff's office. The sheriff's office said the area cleared within a minute and the fights ended after the pepper balls were used.

LSU student Isaac Watty told WBRZ officers came by around 4 o'clock to shut down tailgates and music as people were already wrapping up.

"As we're walking out, they get into an argument. As they get into an argument, it starts to escalate, and people start throwing punches, and an all-out brawl comes out," Watty said.

Multiple witnesses also told WBRZ they first thought the SWAT team had fired guns instead of pepper spray.

"The crowd started running towards us, so we start running too because we don't know what's going on. We think there may be like a shooting," Taliyah Davis said.

"They shot directly into the ground, and my eyes were burning. I had a friend that ended up getting trampled too as well just because of the commotion," Watty said.

Deputies said the open-air setting caused the effects of the pepper balls to fade quickly, and no injuries were reported in connection with the deployment. Law enforcement from multiple agencies kept working for several more hours to safely disperse the remaining crowds.