Six were arrested after they stole a crate of Stella Artois from a boater celebrating his birthday, threw beer bottles which broke windows and cut a passer-by's foot, assaulted a police officer and damaged her car.

The gang gathered near Somerfield supermarket before heading to the Trent and Mersey Canal and starting an argument with people outside the Big Lock pub, where most of the trouble happened.

A witness in the pub, who did not wish to be named, said: "It was quite bad and quite scary because there was a lot of them - if they had tried to get in the pub there would have been no chance of stopping them."

Sgt Richard Line, from Middlewich CAT team, said: "We believe they had come in for a pre-arranged fight with local youths following an allegation that someone from Middlewich had assaulted a Winsford teenager.

"Some of the group were carrying golf clubs."

One youth spat at the female police officer who attended to tackle the gang at the Big Lock and others attacked her car before running into the town centre where six boys aged between 14 and 18 years old were later arrested.

They have since been bailed while more enquiries are carried out. Sgt Line said: "In this case there were no serious assaults and not too much damage, but we intend to make sure this situation does not escalate.

"CCTV can give us warning of any build up of groups of youths, bus companies will let us know if large groups are travelling into Middlewich and we are working closely with our colleagues in neighbouring towns to pick up any information about pending trouble.

"We will move very quickly when we seen signs of any situation which might lead to violence or disorder."

Anyone who picks up any information that fights or other types of anti-social behaviour are developing should contact the Middlewich CAT team on 0845 458 6382 or ring Cheshire Police on 0845 458 0000.

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