Hundreds of people in Dublin saw their Halloween plans fall through after an online hoax led them to believe a huge parade was to take place in the Irish capital.

People lined up down either side of O’Connell Street in the city expecting a parade after news of it appeared online.

But An Garda Síochána, the Irish police force, had to release a statement asking them to disperse because no parade had been planned at all.

Pictures appeared on social media showing massive crowds waiting for the event to start and it led to public transport being disrupted, with the Luas network out of operation for part of the night because of it.

A statement from a spokesperson for An Garda Síochána said: "Please be advised that contrary to information being circulated online, no Halloween parade is scheduled to take place in Dublin city centre this evening or tonight.

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"All those gathered on O’Connell Street in expectation of such a parade are asked to disperse safely."

It has since emerged online that the rumours of a parade circulated from a website based abroad and there had been no official notification that one was due to take place in Ireland’s biggest city.

The website was myspirithalloween.com and it gave details of a large parade due to take place between 7pm and 10pm on Thursday night in Dublin.

It stated that the parade was due to be hosted by the Galway arts ensemble Macnas, who had delivered large events in Dublin at Halloween in the past but had no plans to this year.