http://www.stuff.co.nz/4449425a11.html

A terrified family hid in their home after a pitched battle between Black Power and Mongrel Mob gang members erupted in their Gisborne street.

Tensions between the two gangs erupted early yesterday morning, with a brawl involving 50 people on the corner of Ida and Huxley roads.

Gisborne police were stretched thin by three other incidents and sent one officer to deal with the brawl.

Sergeant Lincoln Sycamore said he arrived to find people throwing bottles and debris at each other and chanting gang slogans, and could only stand and watch. But when he saw a man knocked unconscious on the ground being smashed in the face with a piece of timber, he intervened. The man suffered a possible eye socket fracture, but was discharged from hospital.

Dane Hagen