Three men arrested after a mass brawl broke out during a Hampshire Christmas church service have been bailed.
Stunned worshipers looked on and police were called as heavy chairs and punches thrown during the service.
One person was left covered in blood during the fight, which forced the priest to stop midnight mass at St Edmund’s Church in Southampton because he feared people’s lives were in danger.
The violent scenes came as Monsignor Vincent Harvey, delivered a sermon to the 350-strong congregation at the Roman Catholic church in The Avenue, at about 1am on Christmas Day.
He was discussing the frailty of human nature and the broken society.
Father Harvey said: “There was loud talking going on at the back but I just assumed some people had had a bit too much to drink.”
But the priest added: “The person involved started throwing fairly heavy chairs down a side aisle, endangering people’s lives.
“If they’d hit anybody they could have been badly injured.
“People were trying to get out of the way – they were visibly shaken.
“You occasionally get commotion, people who have had too much to drink and fall over.
“This was very, very violent.
“I’ve certainly never seen chairs being thrown in a church.”
A steward was left with an injured hand, but no one else was hurt.
Father Harvey, who stopped the service for 20 minutes while police calmed the situation, said that he believed the people involved in the fight were not regular churchgoers.
He said Christmas celebrations had been “dampened” by the disturbance, but most people had stayed to the end of the mass and were still in a positive mood.
He said: “I just asked people for a bit of silence so we could recollect ourselves and to pray for the person involved.
“I said remember these people are broken and it’s just what we’ve been talking about.”
Father Harvey said drunkenness is nothing new at midnight mass, but the violence was something he’d not witnessed before.
But he said there are no plans to increase security at future services.
He said: “It’s very much a one-off.”
Officers arrested three men – aged 24, 27 and 31 and all from Southampton – inside the church and nearby.
They were held overnight for questioning at Southampton Central Police Station on suspicion of affray.
They have been released on bail, pending further enquiries, and must report back to the police on Friday.
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