Fight breaks out in busy restaurant as parents shield crying child from brawl
Mums looked on in horror as their big day with their families was disrupted by a vicious restaurant brawl as two women threw punches and pulled each other's hair.
Footage circulating online shows the two pair grappling in the Restaurant Bar & Grill in Liverpool's city centre. Mothers taken out for a meal ended up having to dodge the rumble as it roved across the restaurant, causing violent chaos before the pair were eventually kicked out.
In footage of the incident, one person was heard saying: "She's punching her head in" while another shouts: "This is our Mother's Day!" The video shows one woman grabs another by the hair and pulls her down into a seated area, moving back between the tables to the centre of the restaurant where they are eventually separated amidst a throng of people. A mum can also be seen trying to protect her little girl - who was on the verge of tears - from the scrap as the women fall backwards.
Video of the incident has had more than 35,000 views on social media and has prompted many reactions. One Facebook user said: "Stay classy!" while another said: "I feel ashamed for the women involved in that fighting, in a restaurant too. Have some self respect."
A spokesman for Individual Restaurants told the Liverpool Echo: "We’re aware of an incident which took place yesterday in the Restaurant Bar & Grill Liverpool. The safety and experience of our guests is of the upmost importance to us and violence of any nature will not be tolerated in our restaurants.
Dr Michael Mosley shares exercise that can cut cholesterol and blood pressure"The guests involved were removed from the premises and have been banned from the restaurant. No staff or guests were harmed during the incident.”
On Mother's Day last year, a similar incident was filmed on Liverpool's Jamaica Street, with a number of women brawling outside Camp and Furnace nightclub. Having a fight in or near a restaurant is not a traditional part of Mother's Day celebrations in the UK. The celebration has its origins in the 16th century custom of 'Mothering Sunday', a religious festival which fell on the fourth Sunday of Lent, which is three Sundays before Easter.
Most historians believe during the 16th century, people in the UK used to return on the 4th Sunday in Lent for a service to their ‘mother church’ - the main church or cathedral of the area.
This was either the church where you were baptised, the local parish church or more often the nearest cathedral. Anyone who did this was commonly said to have gone "a-mothering".
Later on, Mothering Sunday became a day when domestic servants were given a day off to visit their mother church, usually with their own mothers and other family members. This was one of the few points of the year when many working people would have the time to get together en-masse.