Police in central Quang Ngai province are still searching for suspects after a gang fight in the provincial capital involving machetes, guns and a grenade.
According to Tuoi Tre, witnesses saw a group of young men arrive on foot to Quang Ngai City's Truong Chinh Street around 10pm last Sunday. After a heated phone call, six vehicles rolled up to the vacant lot where the group was waiting and all hell broke loose, with both parties brandishing machetes and firearms at one another.
“I heard a series of gunshots, and then someone shouted: 'remove the grenade pin and throw',” a witness told the news outlet.
Police arrived on the scene shortly thereafter, causing the rival gangs to flee. Authorities managed to apprehend four suspects that evening, though, as Tuoi Tre notes, it took some work, as “police officers were covered in mud from wrestling with the detainees”.
Meanwhile, back at the site of the original fight, an undetonated grenade remained on the ground. Police later blocked off the area surrounding the explosive for safety. Officers then set up police checkpoints at two spots along National Highway 1 to search for more of the gang members involved in the fight.
According to Zing, these efforts were successful, as police apprehended two more gang members the following day by way of these checkpoints. Nguyen Phong Quoc, 20, and Nguyen Huynh Duc, 23, traveled from Binh Dinh province to Quang Ngai as part of a 40-person gang with the intention of waging war against a 30-member local gang in Quang Ngai. The two were fleeing back to Binh Dinh by taxi when authorities caught up with them.
Though the pair initially denied their involvement in the fight, Quoc and Duc later came clean. Police officers are currently seeking additional suspects as well as investigating the overall impact of the incident, including property damage. It remains unclear why the fight started in the first place.
[Photo via Thanh Nien]
