Seventeen people have been arrested following an altercation that occurred at a seafood restaurant in Stulang Laut, Johor Baru.
Eight women and nine men in their 20s and 50s were arrested on Monday morning, state police chief Comm Datuk Mohd Khalil Kader Mohd said.
The suspects, consisting of four local men, five Vietnamese men, seven Vietnamese women and an Indonesian woman, were detained after the video of the fracas went viral yesterday (March 4).
The video was shared widely on Facebook and WhatsApp. It was also posted on popular Johor Baru-based community information Facebook page, JB Tracer.
The footage showed a large number of people shouting and pushing each other in front of other diners at the Ha Long Bay Vietnamese restaurant along Jalan Ibrahim Sultan at about 2am on March 4.
The scene evolved into a melee of punches, smashed bottles and thrown chairs. A man was seen with facial injuries.
The rampage was thought to have been started over a Vietnamese woman.
Comm Mohd Khalil said initial investigations showed some of the suspects were drunk and that the restaurant was slow in serving their orders.
Mohd Azren Jamaludin
“There is a proverb which says ‘a hungry man is an angry man’ and perhaps there is some truth in the saying,” he quipped during a press conference.
Earlier, police arrested three men aged between 35 and 67 to facilitate investigations into the incident.
They were picked up at 6pm on March 4 along Jalan Siu Chin in Johor Baru during an ‘Ops Cantas’ exercise by a team from the Johor Baru South district police secret societies, gambling and vice (D7) unit.
