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A family with 26 unruly members was offloaded from a Carnival Legend cruise ship bound for Melbourne, Australia onto a small police boat at Eden on NSW’s south coast after being involved in a mass brawl. A barrage of derogatory chants and insults from other passengers became the family’s “send-off “ as they were made to disembark prematurely and rather embarrassingly.

Reports from officials say that before the major brawl, there may have been fights going on for days on end onboard the said cruise ship.

The fight broke out in the early hours of Friday morning aboard the ship which was about to conclude its 10-day cruise around the South Pacific.

Other passengers said that before the big scuffle, the group of troublemakers had been starting fights for a few days already including in front of children playing in the pool. One witness even said: “There are people walking around with cut heads and hands.”

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David Barkho shared that his son onboard called him to beg him to get in touch with the authorities after he suffered head injuries while on the ship. He quoted his 20-year-old son as saying: “A lot of people are bleeding, a lot of people are down.”

Video of the brawl that’s being shared on social media shows dozens of people fighting each other, security guards and other staff before the person behind the camera was approached by the staff to stop the filming.

Carnival general manager Jennifer Vandekreek says there were “limited and isolated events with the family in question” before the huge fight. She also told local media that disembarking a family from a cruise is “an unprecedented incident.”

It is not clear what triggered or started the fights that went on, or why the troubles were not stopped much earlier before it was blown to such proportion as the big brawl. A NSW Police investigation is still underway.

Another video circulating on social media shows dozens of passengers applauding, and taunting the family as they were made to disembark the anchored ship and turned over to water police.

The family was taken ashore and transported to Canberra where they made other travel arrangements.

The Carnival Cruise Line has also launched an internal investigation into the incident.They have also sent a “care team “to support the remaining passengers who are set to finish their cruise in Melbourne on Saturday.

Source:

http://www.news.com.au/national/breaking-news/fights-on-ship-bound-for-vic-passengers/news-story/79ca5b7d5cfdc6bd39dcde3545eb526c