Up to 15 youths clashed in a mass brawl in the centre of Shrewsbury, just days after a teenager was stabbed during a huge fight in the town.

Police said the incident happened on Kingsland Bridge at about 8pm yesterday.

Witnesses said groups of youths sparred, kicked and punched one another until police were called.

They staged running battles across the bridge, ignoring the cars and evening walkers passing over the bridge, near the town’s Quarry park.

Two police fast response cars arrived at the scene within 90 seconds of the alarm being raised.

A police patrol van had passed through Shrewsbury Quarry just 30 minutes before violence flared.

An eyewitness who was in the Quarry and watched the incident unfold said there were abnormally high numbers of teenagers in the park, aged about 13 to 17.

He said: “One youth, who was about 17 and had dark hair and was wearing a dark t-shirt with white lettering, started repeatedly shouting the word ‘faggot’ to taunt the other gang.

“That went on for a couple of minutes until a boy of mixed race took the bait and fought. The boy in the dark t-shirt knocked him to the ground, got on top of him and started to repeatedly punch him in the head. Then other boys broke up the fight.”

The eyewitness, who lives nearby, added: “Sporadic fights continued to break out and the boy in the dark t-shirt continued to goad the others. Then he attacked another boy, knocking him to the ground.

“About 10 boys got involved and punches and kicks were raining in.”

The incident comes after Ryan Allis-Smith, 17, from Belle Vue, was stabbed twice in an incident on Tuesday at Castle Walk.

Up to 30 youths were involved in the fight and police have so far arrested six people.

Inspector Mark Hatton, of West Mercia Police, today said no arrests had been made in connection with the latest fight and no-one had been seriously hurt.

He said: “It doesn’t appear to have been a pre-arranged fight and it just seems to be a group of youths that have decided to have a go at each other.”