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Gang videoed girls brawling on their mobile phones in Tankerton
00:01, 16 August 2014
A horrified mum has told how she saw teenage girls brawling in broad daylight while others cheered and filmed the fight.
Lucy Guthrie, 42, was stunned during her weekly run on Tankerton Slopes when she and her exercise class spotted a crowd of 30 youngsters near the yacht club.
As they passed the group, Lucy admitted she felt intimidated shortly before violence suddenly broke out when two girls began throwing punches at each other.
The mum-of-two said she was “horrified” as onlookers decided to capture the fight on their mobile phones.
The next day she recounted the incident in her blog on the Faversham.org website, where she works as a website manager.
She said: “I watched in horror as teenagers in the group just watched on and chanted “fight, fight” while videoing the whole episode on their phones.
“I was aghast and wanted to step in and split them up, but was wisely advised not to, as the numbers were large and I would have become a victim myself.
“Fortunately, as soon as this awful brawl started it stopped, with the group dissipating hopefully to their homes.
“I am not a bitter mother who thinks teenagers are all disenchanted but my eyes have been opened, and I do feel very sad.”
Speaking after the incident, Lucy, who has two teenage sons, said the blog had provoked an interesting reaction among her friends.
She said: “What is interesting most people is that it was girls fighting instead of boys.
“Stereotypically, when people think of teenagers fighting they think of boys, I don’t know why that is.
“According to my children I’m out of touch.”
She said the group advised her not to intervene in the conflict when she considered breaking up the fight in case the situation turned nasty.
Lucy said: “We were speaking about this afterwards and the three men I was with said we shouldn’t break it up as there were too many of them.
“We didn’t know what kicked it off but fortunately it stopped before we could break it off.
“They assessed the situation. You have to be mindful of what you’re getting involved with.”
A police spokesman said inquiries were ongoing after they received a report of a fight in Marine Parade just after 8pm between two groups of teenage girls. Minor injuries were reported.
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