A vicious brawl outside a popular city bar has led to six arrests in the heart of London's financial district, with workers prevented from leaving their offices as police examined the scene.
Police said three men were taken to hospital after a knife fight outside All Bar One at Liverpool Street Station, on Bishopsgate, shortly after lunchtime on Monday.
The road, usually crammed with buses and lorries, was in gridlock after cordons were lifted at 6pm.
One eyewitness told the Evening Standard: “One of the victims was on the floor and didn’t look too good. He was holding the left side of his stomach.
“The blade must have been large, the cut was around three inches long.”
Another witness, a worker at the Royal Bank of Scotland’s headquarter, said: “I looked out my window and it was really eerie - just loads of police but the rest of the road quiet.
“There’s loads of rumours, including that the men worked at RBS, but I think it’s a case of putting two and two together to get 43.
“It’s really shocking because it’s always such a busy area and you wouldn’t expect it.”
A spokeswoman for the London Ambulance Service said: "We were called at 2pm this afternoon to reports of a stabbing. We sent three of our ambulance crews, four cars and the London Air Ambulance in a car.
"We took three patients, who were all men, to hospital."
All Bar One have denied the brawl took place in the bar.
A City of London Police spokesman said: “We are investigating a stabbing, which took place on Bishopsgate junction with Primrose Street at 2pm yesterday.
“It is believed that a group of men were involved in a fight, which resulted in three men suffering minor stab wounds.
“The injured men, aged in their early twenties, were taken to hospital and following inquiries have subsequently been arrested for their involvement in the assault.
“Three further men also in their twenties have been arrested in connection with this incident.”