A BLOODY fight erupted in a Liverpool city centre restaurant between two rival Chinese gangs armed with an arsenal of weapons.

Up to 40 men, some wielding meat-cleavers, hammers, two-foot machetes and a Samurai sword, clashed in Chinatown's Chilli Chilli.

The mobs sat together and enjoyed drinks before the ringleader and “referee” signalled with his hand for the fight to begin – early on May 9.

During the violence, accomplices guarded the front door of the Nelson Street restaurant to stop customers going in.

Inside, the Chinese gangs were viciously slashing and chopping their rivals with sharpened blades .One blood-drenched man was left with four stab wounds to his back.

Another suffered a serious hand injury after one attacker brought the lethal Samurai sword crashing down from above his head. Yesterday, police applied to temporarily close down the restaurant, with one officer describing the fight as the “most violent seen in my 25-year career”.

But Liverpool councillors granted Chilli Chilli a reprieve, imposing strict conditions ahead of a full hearing in June.