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Woman's ear bitten off in Newcastle street brawl
by Michael Brown
Evening Chronicle Apr 4 2012

ROLLING in the middle of the road, two women brawl in broad daylight in a city centre street.

The scene unfolded in Newcastle when two couples clashed.

One of the women had half her ear bitten off.

Shoppers also saw one man hit the women with a metal chair while they threw punches and wrestled on the ground in front of a Stagecoach bus.

The incident took place in Newgate Street – officially branded the most crime-heavy street in the city.

As dozens of passers-by looked on, one man repeatedly smashed the chair into the women with a sickening thud.

Holly Bradshaw, 18, from Wardley, Gateshead, works at Subway and was about to take in the chairs and tables from the sandwich shop’s outside area when the violence flared.

“I was heading outside to clear away the tables and chairs when I saw the fight,” she said.

“The lads came running across the road, then one picked up a chair and swung it at the other.

“The chair missed him and went right across the road.

“All this fighting seemed a bit heavy for a Monday night.”

Another eyewitness, who asked not to be named, was walking from a nearby Chinese supermarket at around 7.25pm when he heard shouting.

“The two women had grabbed each other by the throats and were wrestling each other to the ground in the middle of the road,” he said.

“They were properly scrapping.

“At the same time, a guy in a light top and trousers was chasing another man across the road towards Subway – wildly swinging punches as he went.

“They wheeled round, and as the chased man began to retreat back across the road, the other chap grabbed a metal chair from outside Subway and threw it at him. It missed, so he picked up another and threw that too.

“The two men then confronted each other in the road and were arguing with each other in front of a Stagecoach bus that had pulled up and found its path blocked by the chairs.

“All the time the women were still going at it.

“The chased man walked away across the street and the guy in the lighter trousers picked up one of the chairs from the road and walked towards the women.

“After a moment’s hesitation, he laid into them with the chair, swinging it up above his head and down into them two or three times.

“It must have had some force because even from 30 yards away you could hear an awful thwacking sound.

“Eventually a passer-by plucked up the courage and tried to separate the women, which they eventually did. But then the two pairs just kept arguing from a distance as they walked up Nun Lane – and then the cops showed up.”

Last night police said they were holding a 35-year-old man and a 29-year-old woman on suspicion of assault, while the woman who had her ear bitten was believed to be receiving hospital treatment.

http://www.chroniclelive.co.uk/north-east-news/evening-chronicle-news/2012/04/04/woman-s-ear-bitten-off-in-newcastle-street-brawl-video-72703-30690732/