Christmas Eve got off to a bad start at Last Call, 729 N.H.

Lawrence police arrested six people after three separate incidents early Sunday, including a six-person fight on New Hampshire Street outside the nightclub.

The violence resulting from the incidents was kept to a minimum, police say, because of security at the club and frequent patrols in the area.

“It just didn’t pan out to be that much,” police spokeswoman Kim Murphree said Tuesday. “We had officers on the scene pretty quickly.”

The arrests came after several violent incidents this month at the club, including an altercation that led to a drug-dealing arrest and gun violations.

When officers showed up around 3 a.m. Sunday at the bar, they found six people fighting in a large crowd along New Hampshire Street, police said.

It was the third police visit to the club that night. Earlier, officers arrested a Kansas City, Kan., man after he refused to leave the bar and got into an altercation with a bouncer.

An hour later at 1:30 a.m., police on foot patrol found bar security outside struggling with a Kansas City, Mo., man after he had been thrown out three times, police said. He was trying to get back into the bar.

The man was arrested for trespassing. After a more thorough search at the jail, officers said they found a box cutter in his shoe that he apparently was trying to bring into the club.

After the 3 a.m. rumble outside the club, police and security guards calmed the crowd and sent folks on their way. In the end, police made four arrests for battery, resisting arrest and obstruction.

All four people arrested were from the Kansas City area, according to jail records.

Earlier this month, a Kansas Highway Patrol helicopter assisted Lawrence police in searching for people coming to the club with guns. Police received a tip about a possible threat from people attending a concert there, police said at the time.

As a result of those Dec. 15 searches, police arrested two Kansas City, Mo., men on gun violations.

The club has been the scene of several altercations during the past year, including a person shooting a handgun in May inside the club.