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Police say it is sheer luck they are not dealing with a multiple homicide after Mongrel Mob members rampaged through a 21st birthday party, swinging knives, baseball bats and a machete.
Five people were admitted to Hawke's Bay Hospital with serious injuries after 100 partygoers were set upon just before midnight on Saturday.
The Hawke's Bay gang violence comes as Southland police work to quell a feud between rival Mongrel Mob and Road Knights gangs in Invercargill. The Southland tension has led to two properties being torched.
Meanwhile, the attack at the birthday party is the fifth gang-related attack in Hastings in three weeks, and Mayor Lawrence Yule says the violence against innocent people is of great concern.
Three men were arrested at the scene of the latest incident and a fourth, who police believe was the principal offender, was arrested yesterday afternoon at a Hastings address. The men are charged with five counts of wounding with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.
Detective Sergeant Mike Foster said it appeared a "reasonably senior" gang member was known to the people throwing the party, but he was not invited. When he was refused entry, he returned with a car-load of armed gang members.
The sight of these patched men slashing their way through the crowd must have been "absolutely horrific", Mr Foster said. "They basically stabbed and slashed and beat anybody who stepped in their way."
He praised the first police on the scene, who had to deal with "pandemonium" and managed to stabilise the bleeding victims and still arrest three fleeing gang members.
He did not know what had caused the latest spate of gang violence in Hastings. The attacks did not appear to be directly linked.
"We need to sit on this very quickly, and I believe we have done that. We're putting them away, we're seeking the cooperation of the [Mob] hierarchy. That's really all we can do."
Mr Yule said gangs had been present in Hawke's Bay for many years, but violence had worsened dramatically in the past few months. While Wanganui suffered inter-gang violence, "what they are doing here is causing mayhem on innocent people".
"It's completely unacceptable. We're going to have to get tough and deal with it."
Canterbury University gang researcher Jarrod Gilbert said it was "enormously rare" for the public to get caught in gang violence. Gangs were usually well-controlled, but Mob leaders seemed to have less control because the gang was so large and violence, known as "Mongrelism", was almost endorsed.
FIVE ATTACKS IN THREE WEEKS
Police have arrested nine people, including five Mongrel Mob members, in connection with five attacks in Hawke's Bay in the past three weeks.
June 21: More than 100 people set upon by six Mongrel Mob members who, armed with knives, baseball bats, and a machete, gatecrashed a Hastings 21st birthday party. Five people taken to hospital. Four arrests so far.
June 8: A 21-year- old man was beaten after he opened his front door to four men in Flaxmere, Hastings. His terrified partner hid her newborn baby then confronted the men. They were wearing red and black and and yelled out youth gang slang during the beating. A 15-year-old has been arrested in connection with the attack. A 34-year-old man was seriously injured in an assault at Hastings' Mongrel Mob headquarters. Four people have been arrested.
June 6: A 27-year- old Hastings man was beaten in the suburb of Camberley by several suspected Mongrel Mob members. The man had no gang links and police say the attack appeared to have been unprovoked.
June 1: Gang members walked into a 21st birthday party and assaulted three people in Camberley.
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