DUBAI // A man was stabbed to death during a fight between more than 200 people at the Jamal Abdul Nassir Square in Naif, a court heard today.

Prosecutors said the fight on December 13 last year appeared to have been pre-arranged between a group of men from Azerbaijan and another group from Tajikistan, and was particularly vicious.

"I saw them use everything around them as weapons," recalled the Egyptian waiter MM, 31, who was working in a nearby restaurant. "One used a wooden ladder to hit another man while others used rubbish bins."

Prosecutors claim that during the fight, ZM, 34, from Azerbaijan, stabbed another of the men, Seyavoch Kholov, to death.

As he was running away he jumped in front of the car of AK, 33, from Rwanda. "He climbed on my car, smashed the front windscreen then fled," the driver recalled, adding that the man had left drops of blood all over his car.

When the murderer's family found out what he had done, they contacted MP, 39, a housewife from Azerbaijan. "They asked me to help his so I advised him to surrender to police then accompanied him to the Naif police station," said the housewife.

Police traced the murder weapon, a knife, to ZM's home.

When he appeared at the Criminal Court he denied a charge of murder. Five of his compatriots, MH, 23, EH, 27, HM, 29, RH, 25, FH, 29 and one man from Ukraine KM, 25, denied assault charges.

The case was adjourned to April 28.

salamir@thenational.ae