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A violent thug got more than he bargained for when he raided a Chinese takeaway - a belt of a meat cleaver and 20 stitches to the head.

The vicious lowlife stabbed a teenage staff member in the arm with a blood-filled syringe during the raid in Wicklow town on Friday night.

But during the commotion, the injured lad’s colleague burst out of the kitchen with the cleaver and hit the raider across the head.

The bloody ordeal happened at 11pm on Friday when a 20-year-old man entered the Oriental Castle Chinese takeaway in the town’s busy Market Square.

He threatened staff with the syringe and demanded cash from the teenage boy, who was serving customers.

The brave youngster tackled the crazed thief to the ground where, in the struggle, he was stabbed in the arm.

Witnesses say a man then came running from the kitchen to protect his colleague with a large meat clever and struck the thief on the back of the head as the pair struggled on the ground.

Liam Byrne, manager of nearby pub Whistlers, was standing outside the bar when he heard “shouting and screaming”.

He told The Mirror: “I heard a commotion coming from the Chinese restaurant across the street so I went over to investigate.

“I went in and the owner was shouting, ‘help we are being robbed’.”

Burley Liam, a former prop for Wicklow Rugby Club, said he told the raider to settle down when the man, who was now back on his feet, pushed him and called him a ‘pr**k’.

Liam added: “I pushed him back against the wall and managed to ground him, I put my knee on the back of his neck and held his arms behind his back until the Gardaí arrived.

“It was only then I saw the syringe on the ground and noticed the young lad had a puncture wound on his arm which was bleeding, I told him to go and wash it out immediately.”

Brave Liam also had to wash himself down after being covered in blood, which was spewing from the raider’s head wound.

Gardaí arrived a short time later and the man was arrested.

He was taken to St Vincent’s Hospital in Dublin, where he received treatment for his injuries, including 20 stitches to the back of his head.

He was later interviewed and was released without charge.

A file has been sent to the Director of Public Prosecutions.

The brave youngster now faces an anxious six-month wait to discover if the man has infected him with any blood-related diseases.