Vicar frightened for parishioners' lives after men threw chairs and punches during sermon at St Edmund's church in Southampton
A vicar has said he feared for his parishioners' lives after a brawl broke out at the midnight mass he was leading on Christmas Eve.
Monsignor Vincent Harvey said men were throwing chairs and punches at each other in St Edmund's church, Southampton, and that he only managed to finish the service once the police arrived to arrest those involved.
Father Vincent said he initially assumed people had drunk a little too much.
He said: "But then about three or four minutes later, there were scuffles going on. Then it was obvious it was more than just a scuffle, there was actually a fight going on.
"The person involved started throwing fairly heavy chairs down a side aisle, endangering people's lives.
"People were frightened that it was happening. If they'd hit anybody they could have been badly injured."
Most of the 350 people attending the church service stayed for the rest of the mass although some, unsettled by witnessing the fight, went home.
The priest said after it happened: "I just asked people for a bit of silence so we could recollect ourselves and pray for the person involved.
"My sermon had been about how we are broken people, fragile people, and I said he is one of the very people I'm talking about."
Hampshire constabulary later confirmed that it had questioned three men, aged 24, 27 and 31 from Southampton, on suspicion of affray.
The three men were bailed pending further enquiries.