Passengers Fight With Metal Poles And Shopping Baskets In Airport Brawl

5 February 2019, 12:36

This is the moment a group of passengers armed with metal poles and other objects clashed in the departure lounge at an airport in Belfast.

Police were called to the departure lounge at Belfast International Airport after a fight broke out on Saturday evening.

Video footage recorded by other passengers show the group of men hitting each other with metal poles as people rush away.

Kirk Rutherford, who posted the video to Twitter, described the scenes as "absolute mayhem".

Other witnesses also described seeing baskets from duty free being thrown, as well as a fire extinguisher.

But the airport has refuted some claims that the altercation continued for more than 20 minutes, issuing a statement that reports the incident lasting only seven minutes.

The statement said: "There is an ongoing police investigation into what happened and we would appeal to anyone who captured photographic or video evidence to send to duty.sergeant@bfs.aero.

“The airport will not tolerate behaviour such as this and takes such incidents very seriously.  

"It acknowledges the concern and upset felt by passengers who witnessed the altercation.

"No-one was injured and four individuals did not travel. There was insufficient grounds to prevent the remainder of the group from travelling and alcohol was not an issue."