A brawl at a popular Napier restaurant spilled into the street outside as punters smashed chairs and tables and cracked windows, the restaurant’s owner says.
Breakers Taradale owner Zac Murray was on Thursday morning picking up the pieces from an incident on Wednesday at 5.30pm, which police say resulted in two arrests.
Murray said he would be opening the restaurant today.
He said a birthday celebration had been booked at the Gloucester St restaurant for 20 people on Wednesday afternoon.
As one of that group entered the restaurant, the fracas started, he said.
What followed was a brawl lasting roughly 10 minutes that went from inside the premises to the street, he said.
The fight cracked windows and broke chairs and tables.
Murray said that at the end of it, he had no choice but to close his restaurant early.
He said he felt horrible about the incident. “But I’m glad to be picking up glass instead of cleaning up blood.”
A police spokeswoman said officers responded to reports of a large disorder at a premises on Gloucester St.
She said one person was assaulted, which prompted the disorder, and two people had been arrested in relation to the incident.
Police were unable to say if the incident was gang-related.
There have been several high-profile incidents in Taradale linked to confrontations between Black Power and the Mongrel Mob over the years.
Violence erupted on the street outside and at least one shot was fired from a gun during the commotion, with one 25-year-old man seriously injured by a gunshot, and a pellet striking the back of a child’s car seat while a child sat in it.