Street challenge triggers Avondale gang brawl

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An all-in brawl erupted in Avondale last night after a shirtless man started "roaring" at two rivals.

The verbal challenge quickly grew into a fight which spilled on to Great North Rd as more men appeared and beat one another with planks of wood, witnesses said.

Police said three men in their early 20s from Avondale were fighting about six men from a rival street gang.

One of the Avondale men was knocked out in the brawl and was taken to Auckland City Hospital with minor injuries. Emergency services were called to the scene near the major intersection with St Jude St about 5.45pm.

A woman who saw the brawl said two men were walking down Great North Rd towards the post office and they were yelled at by another man on the other side of the road.

"They were saying stuff like, 'Come over here and say that, come on man'. Basically 'come on, it'sall on, let's have a fight'. Andhe was standing there withhis shirt off, roaring."

Next the brawl started and the men were beating one another with planks of wood up against a wire-mesh fence. "I just wanted to get out of there at that point."

She said it seemed like a gang brawl because of how many men turned up, apparently from out of nowhere.

Inspector Chris Robinson, of the Auckland Central police station, said no one had been arrested because the people who initiated the fight had run off.

"The guys who have been bashed don't really want to say anything. I think they might know who they are, but they don't want to let on."