Irish police were forced to monitor a Co. Cavan teenager's Facebook page after an unintentional 'public' event led to a hundreds-strong crowd congregating around his house.

The panicked teenager was reportedly forced to cancel the social media fueled party after his parents informed him that a member of the police's drug unit had been in touch to inform them that possibly thousands of strangers were planning to throng the house in what had rapidly turned into a viral internet sensation.

By the time a crowd did gather, however, police were on hand to block the way, and later confirmed that no arrests had to be made.

Amazing pictures from the teen's bash – dubbed 'Project X, Cavan – show teams of perfect strangers converging on the hapless young student's house after having gotten wind of the party from Facebook and Twitter.

An apparently bemused police Inspector revealed how what had began as a simple gathering of friends suddenly turned into an out-of-control viral sensation, resulting in a mammoth influx of strangers to the young man's house.

“He sent the invitation to no more than 20 to 40 Facebook friends but it just went crazy," Inspector Farrelly, of the local police station, was reported as saying.

"Several busloads of people turned up and we asked them to disperse. There were a few hundred at least."

“This young man made the invitation to his circle of friends but it went crazy. At least he had the good sense to call us when he felt things were getting out of hand.”

Another witness told news aggergator TheJournal.ie that up to several hundred people had turned up at the height of the unexpected bash:

“The amount of cars was crazy but towards the end of he night there was good amount of gardaí present which stopped any real trouble happening."

“From around 1am people were dispersing,” an anonymous source told the website, adding that he estimated that between 300 and 500 people were in attendance.

Irish Facebook and Twitter feeds tonight remained awash with punters planning possible 'Project X's' in their localities.

The 'ProjectXCavan' shenanigans isn't the first time what started out as a moderate-scale house party has balooned into an international internet sensation.

An Australian teenager was last year forced to cancel a sixteenth birthday party after what started out as an intimate gathering of friends rapidly mushroomed into an 18,000-strong guestlist thanks to the viral powers of the internet.

The event even spawned a successful Facebook meme of its own, with online outlets such as the Official Jess Cooper Store and 'The Awkward Moment was Jessica Cooper has half of Australia in her house' cropping up to cash in on, and make fun of, the unlucky school-girl's unexpectedly massive party.

Sometimes it's not such a happy ending, though.

In 2008, a 16 year old English schoolgirl had her home effectively broken into and her mother's jewlerry stolen after what began, similarly, as an innocuous gathering of friends spun crazily out of control.

"People were having sex in bedrooms, smoking cannabis and wrecking the front garden," one party-goer told The Telegraph.

"The carpets are wrecked, the windows broken and there are all sorts of cigarette burns. I didn't see the sheets because they were all washed quite a lot."

Video: YouTube-user submitted video and photos from Project X Cavan