Staff and customers rushed to help after a man was knocked unconscious outside a pub on Sunday night (July 3).
Merseyside Police were called to reports of an altercation between two men outside The Dog House on Church Road, Wavertree at around 11.30pm on Sunday. One man was knocked unconscious and taken to hospital with serious, but not life-threatening injuries, while the other man was reported to have fled the scene in the direction of Heathfield Road.
Police closed Church Road between Kenyon Road and Heathfield Road and remained at the scene on Monday (July 4) morning. Two police cars were in attendance, before they were joined by the Scientific Support Unit, who carried out forensic inquiries.
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Police also used CCTV footage from the Dog House in order to assist with their inquiries. The pub's owner Paul White spoke to the ECHO on Monday (July 4) morning as police remained at the scene.
He said: "At about 11.30pm, I was alerted by the manager who was on shift that there was an altercation in the street outside the pub. My staff went out to break it up but some guy was knocked out.
"The staff gave first aid and then some of the customers came out to help the staff. The guy had gone down and he was in the middle of the road. The police are using our CCTV, that's why they've cordoned me off.
"I don't think they were customers of ours because we closed at 11pm. We think it was just passers-by.
"It's a big cordon. We're friends with most of the street. I've had neighbours ringing me this morning asking 'what's going on?'. It was just an altercation outside last night."
The cordon stretched from the junction with Kenyon Road to the junction with Heathfield Road, meaning that The Dog House, Church Road Chippy, Penny Lane Flowers and Home Instead were within the police tape. The road closure blocked access to and from Allerton Road and Smithdown Road, affecting traffic on the school run.
As a result, pupils and parents had to scramble around the cordon on foot as they made their way to The Blue Coat School, further up Church Road , while a number of buses had to perform u-turns in order to escape the closed road. Staff members from businesses within the cordon were not allowed into the premises until a forensic officer's duties concluded.
However, most residents who spoke to the ECHO at the scene were unaware that an incident had taken place last night. One man, who lives opposite The Dog House, said: "I must have been dead to the world. I didn't hear anything."
Others had been in the pub earlier in the day and were surprised to see a police scene. One man said: "I live locally and I didn't know what had gone on. I was in The Dog House yesterday afternoon - it's my local - and it was fine. We don't tend to see scenes like this here."
Another resident said: "I was in there for my dinner yesterday, it's a surprise to see that", while one woman said: "Why do people have to behave like this? Can't we all just get along?"
The cordon was lifted and the road was reopened shortly after 9.30am. Merseyside Police are still looking for a suspect, who is described as white male, early 20s with short brown hair. He was wearing a dark coloured hoody and dark coloured shorts at the time of the incident.
Anyone with information is asked to DM @MerPolCC or @CrimestoppersUK on 0800 555 111 quoting reference 22000470624. You can also call Crimestoppers, anonymously on 0800 555 111, or their online form at https://crimestoppers-uk.org/give-information/forms/give-information-anonymously.
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