A nightclub patron
and security guard were attacked with glass bottles during a
wild brawl involving about 20 men at an inner-Sydney venue.
Police and ambulance
officers were called to a melee at central Sydney's Shelbourne
Hotel, on Sussex Street, about 2.40am (AEDT) Sunday.
Ambulance
officers treated a teenager stabbed in the back of the head with
a broken bottle and a security guard who had been hit also on
the back of the head with a glass bottle, a NSW Ambulance
spokeswoman said.
Police said a
19-year-old Mascot man was in a serious but stable condition in
St Vincents Hospital with lacerations to his face and neck.
The 21-year-old
security guard, who went to the aid of the teenager, was also
struck on the head with a glass bottle but by an unknown
attacker, police said.
An argument
between two men is believed to have sparked the brawl.
A 23-year-old
Maroubra man was arrested at the hotel and later charged with
affray and assault occasioning actual bodily harm.
He was bailed to
face Downing Centre Local Court on February 4.
The incident
followed the launch in December of a six-month trial of plastic
cups in inner-Sydney pubs and clubs, aimed at cutting a spate of
vicious glassing incidents.
It is not known
if the Shelbourne Hotel was participating in the trial. A
spokesperson for the hotel could not be contacted.
The trial did not
include a ban on bottles.
Launching the
trial last month, Detective Chief Inspector John Alt said
glassings, which often result in loss of sight or death, were a
serious problem in central Sydney on weekend nights.
"If we can reduce
that by even one then we've been successful," he told reporters
at the time.
Police had
planned to write to all licensees who did not attend the Liquor
Accord and advise them of the trial.
