Man’s Artery Cut In Street Skirmish

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31381, 29 May 1967, Page 1

Man’s Artery Cut In Street Skirmish

(New Zealand Press Association)

NEW PLYMOUTH, May 28.

A man was rushed to the New Plymouth Hospital with a cut artery in his neck and six others were arrested after a skirmish between overseas merchant seamen and local men in New Plymouth on Saturday night.

The incident occur- ■ red outside the Criterion Hotel about 6.25 p.m. It is believed about 20 men were involved in the incident and a similar number of spectators watched from a safe distance. The skirmish had just begun between the hotel entrance and a bus stop in Devon street when a police patrol car containing Constables V. G. Peters and B. V. Marshall, passed the spot The constables stopped a number of scuffles and arrested five men. A sixth was

arrested this morning at Port Taranaki. The police were given no assistance by the public in breaking up the scuffles but today expressed appreciation of the service of an unknown person who helped to stem the flow of blood from the neck of the injured man until an ambulance arrived. The man, whose name was not disclosed by the police, was in a satisfactory condition in the New Plymouth Hospital tonight after receiving a blood transfusion. The men arrested were released on bail to appear in the Magistrate’s Court at

New Plymouth tomorrow on charges of disorderly behaviour.