One person has been arrested for unlawful assembly after two men were stabbed during a fight in the northern Hawke's Bay town of Wairoa early yesterday.
Two men, aged 30 and 42, were at a party when trouble erupted outside the house and escalated when the windscreen of
a car was smashed.
The men were stabbed during the brawl which followed, said Sergeant Aubrey Ormond, of Wairoa police.
The pair was taken to the local hospital for treatment and later discharged.
"We're going through inquiries trying to identify and speak to everyone in the groups," Mr Ormond told NZPA this afternoon.
"We've got one arrest so far and we have a whole list of names we have to go through."
The stabbings were not gang-related though had "gang undertones," he said.
"Quite a few things in Wairoa have gang undertones," he said.
Mr Ormond said the party involved two rugby teams that had played that day.
"They were at the address having a few beers after the clubrooms ... the main reason for the party was rugby but then alcohol ... has taken over."
He said the two men who were stabbed were lucky to escape with light injuries and nothing vital had been hit. One had been stabbed in the side "which could have hit a kidney" and the other in the back.
- NZPA
