THE Echo Arena last night vowed to take a “zero tolerance” approach to drunken behaviour – but will not stop selling alcohol at its shows.

The waterfront venue reviewed its procedures immediately after singer Morrissey halted his show on Saturday night after he was pelted with a plastic container of beer during his second song.

Attempts are being made to single out the culprit and police are going through CCTV of the incident.

Arena bosses are still in talks with the concert promoters regarding the possibility of refunds for the 10,000-capacity crowd.

As yet, there has been no statement from the fiercely private singer.

Arena general manager Tim Banfield said: “I think any incident which results in an artist leaving the stage has an impact on how we view operations.

“As other venues will attest, objects do occasionally get thrown at the stage, but thankfully in most cases they do not hit the band.

“With large standing gigs such as Saturday night, it is impossible to police the front of the stage in a manner which guarantees incidents such as this will not take place.

“However, we are reviewing the stewarding and our operational procedure.”

Mr Banfield added: “Like all venues of this type, the Echo Arena will continue to sell alcohol to concert-goers so the vast majority of responsible attendees can enjoy a drink during the concert, as they would in any other arena in the UK.

“We will, however, take a zero tolerance approach to those who appear to be unduly affected by alcohol and will not hesitate to eject people from the premises.”

After Saturday’s incident the arena immediately decided to review steward deployment, door procedures and availability of drink at the venue to try and prevent future similar behaviour.

Bosses admitted there had been unruly incidents in the past, but nothing “disproportionate or unusual” for a concert hall of that size.

Morrissey, 50, was continuing his UK tour in Liverpool despite being hospitalised following an on-stage collapse in Swindon just over a week earlier.

Debate over whether the famously temperamental former Smiths singer was right to quit the show after the incident has raged all over the world.