Eight hurt as families feud

EIGHT people were seriously injured in violence which broke out as a result of what appeared to be a family feud in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire yesterday.

Police sealed off a road on a council estate after reports that guns, knives, sticks and baseball bats had been used in the fracas. The fighting involved up to 20 people. A man was struck with an axe on the back of his head.

In the street outside the house where the trouble started, a person was seen lying injured for more than 45 minutes while police in a helicopter, and more officers on the ground wearing protective armour, insisted on keeping the road isolated.

People living nearby said an incident between members of the two families on Friday had caused bad feeling which turned to violence at lunchtime yesterday. The estate houses a substantial Asian community.

Armed police were sent into the estate after police in a helicopter that had been sent to the scene of the disturbance spotted a man involved in the fighting wielding a handgun.

One man suffering from serious head wounds was taken to Stoke Mandeville Hospital.