Eight people shot, two stabbed during melee inside nightclub

NEW YORK -- Eight people were shot and two were stabbed early Sunday when a brawl erupted inside a nightclub above a Times Square arcade, police said. Two others were trampled as people rushed to get out.

A man shot in the chest and a woman shot in the stomach were both in critical condition Sunday, said police Sgt. Dennis Ferber.

The conditions of the others caught in the melee were not immediately available, but authorities said their injuries were not life-threatening.

The fight broke out about 2:40 a.m. in the club of the Broadway City Arcade on West 42nd Street, the street where the theaters present "The Lion King" and "42nd Street."

Club security guard Omar Leger said he was in a bathroom when he heard gunshots and emerged to see people running toward the exits. Clubgoers were falling and tripping over each other as they scrambled to get out, he said.

"People were getting trampled," said Leger, who estimated as many as 350 people were in the club at the time.

The club's crowd capacity was not immediately available, but Ilyse Fink, a spokeswoman for the city Department of Buildings, said she could not recall any code violations.

Authorities said the 10 shooting and stabbing victims were ages 17 to 25.

Another security guard, Juan Jose De la Cruz, said the club's policy is to pat patrons down as they enter to check for weapons.

Police said Sunday that they were searching for two suspects and talking to three people arrested on weapons charges at a nearby subway station shortly after the fight.

The department cracked down on gang violence in the area last year because of brawls, but police officials said the latest fight apparently was not gang-related.

The brawl followed a month in which a nightclub stampede in Chicago killed 21 people and the club fire in West Warwick, R.I., killed 99.

A man who answered the phone at the arcade early Sunday declined to comment.