Johannesburg - Fourth Avenue in Parkhurst was briefly transformed into a war zone on Saturday night, with two groups piling into each other as helpless restaurant patrons looked on.
The brawl lasted less than half-an-hour and resulted in one man being taken to hospital.
Harry Themistocleous was visiting the Espresso restaurant at about 7pm when he saw the groups clash.
Themistocleous said he saw three or four men at first standing in the street between Espresso and another establishment, the Rocket Restaurant and Cocktail Bar.
One of the men was seen pushing another, which led to the first punch being thrown.
Suddenly, the group was in the midst of a full-on free for all, with other people from both Espresso and Rocket leaving the restaurants - some to get involved in the fight, while others tried to separate the brawlers.
Themistocleous said about 20 to 30 people were in the road, with about seven members of the crowd still punching, kicking and shouting at each other, by the time the fight reached its peak.
Themistocleous said the fighters calmed down somewhat when local security company Cortac arrived on the scene a short while into the fight, but one more belligerent brawler threw another punch, sending a man to the pavement.
“The guys started kicking him in the head,” said Themistocleous.
It was only then that the guards became more intense in their involvement and separated the warring groups.
Espresso owner Sean Barber said the fight began with two men “bumping into each other” outside the two restaurants, with their respective groups of friends rushing into the street from both sides.
Sergeant Bongi Mdletshe confirmed that a case of assault with grievous bodily harm was opened at Rosebank police station.
No one had been arrested, but the culprits were known to the investigators.
The Star