Ghosts, ghouls, and characters from spooky movies cycled through the centre of Oxford to take part in the Halloween "alleycat" bike ride.

It was the biggest "alleycat" ride the city has seen so far, with more than 90 cyclists, in Halloween-themed fancy dress taking part.

An alleycat ride is a kind of treasure hunt on bicycles in fancy dress, with riders going through checkpoints before meeting at the finish line.

Organiser Dan Harris, of Oxford Cycle Workshop, said: "We had one of the best turnouts we have ever seen on one of our rides.

"The point of these events is to bring people together.

"We wanted to show that there are a real mixture of people that use bikes. "And there were people of all ages, I think the youngest was 11, so it did really get the point across."

Among the more unusual outfits on show were dead parrots, a surgeon in bloody scrubs, and Mr Harris's own costume, which he described as "half chicken, half ghost".

At each Halloween-themed checkpoint, riders had to carry out a spooky task, which included rescuing ghosts, retrieving samples of slime and recording ghostly activity.

Checkpoints were manned by volunteers from Oxford organisation People and Planet, who dressed as ghosts, vampires, witches and wizards.

Briony Moffat dressed up for the ride but could not decide whether she was an an evil fairy or a devil.

She said: "Our team came eighth over all, but to be honest it didn't really matter, it was so much fun."

A prize was awarded for the best fancy dress to a newcomer wearing an American chain gang prisoner outfit.

And the prize for winning the race, a t-shirt with a picture of reggae legend Bob Marley riding a low-rider bike on it, was awarded to Hugh Prior.

The event finished at the Ultimate Picture Palace which screened classic comedy horror film Beetlejuice — with the audience still in fancy dress.