Cape Town - Police were called to Canal Walk Shopping Centre on Saturday after a vicious fight broke out between two groups of youngsters who caused havoc as they hurled trolleys and shopping baskets at one another.
Videos made of the brawl on an escalator inside the mall have gone viral on social media, with some parents claiming the youngsters were drunk and unruly, and gave security guards a hard time.
Canal Walk CEO, Gavin Wood, says the fight started in the food court when security guards told the youngsters to leave as the mall was closed.
Wood says: “They refused to leave the centre after it closed and reacted violently, attacking some of our security guards while being escorted out of the centre.
“One of the security guards had to be hospitalised. The security procedures are being reviewed and will be modified where necessary. Canal Walk security is working closely with the SAPS in investigating this matter as the safety of our customers is of utmost importance to us.”
Wood says the guard was injured while trying to intervene in the fight and sustained a cut to his arm.
The mall’s management has now opened a criminal case.
In the videos, a large group of young men on an escalator is seen punching a smaller group standing at the top of the escalator.
A shopping basket is thrown at the group on the escalator.
One of them picks up the basket and smacks one of the others across the face with it, before an entire trolley is chucked down the stairs.
“Look here... trolleys. Yoh, ma se * ***,” a person filming the fight is heard saying.
On social media, a shopper claimed a group of boys carrying music boosters and shouting gang slogans caused disruptions in the mall, and that the escalator fight eventually moved to the parking lot.
Other images shared on social media show two young men with facial wounds and blood streaming from their backs and arms in the parking lot.
But a woman, who identified herself as a relative of these boys, said they were attacked in a separate incident outside Canal Walk and were not part of the mall brawl.
The family declined to be interviewed.
Wood says they are not aware of an attack outside the mall.
Police spokesperson, Mihlali Majikela, says two assault cases have been registered for investigation.
“On Saturday at about 11pm, Milnerton police responded to a fight that broke out in a shopping mall. It is alleged that a group of young people were involved in a fight with a security guard,” he said.
“Two separate cases of assault with grievous bodily harm have been opened for investigation.”
Majikela said no arrests have been made as yet.