A fried chicken shop has had its licence suspended after a customer was allegedly stabbed in the face by a member of staff.

Newham Council’s licensing committee heard that officers arrived at the Dixy Chicken in High Street North,

East Ham to find the customer “bleeding profusely” and claiming he had been attacked.

Tuesday’s hearing was told how the victim was found “covered in blood” with a slash wound to his forehead.

One member of staff had also suffered a head injury, police said.

The employees claimed that the customer had become abusive and this escalated into a fight where the men were allegedly attacking each other with the chicken shop’s chairs.

Police called for the review and said that Dixy’s management had “no control or understanding of the premises”.

“You have to have quite strong management in places of this type,” Pc Gary Watson told the committee.

Two staff members and the customer were arrested on suspicion of GBH after the alleged attack at about 8.45pm on Saturday, March 10.

A Metropolitan Police spokesman confirmed that no charges have yet been brought against the three people arrested, and that they have been bailed pending further enquiries.

The committee heard that the licence holder at the time of the attak, Kashif Latif, had not had any interest in the business since 2017 and that two other people, Nazrul Islam and Arfan Sher Rafiquie, had taken over the shop.

An application to transfer the licence to Mr Islam and Mr Rafique was submitted earlier this year.

Mr Rafiquie told the committee that this was the first violent incident the shop had seen.

He said that the two employees involved had been dismissed and the shop furniture would be “bolted down” in future. He added that CCTV would be also installed.

The shop had its licence suspended for eight weeks and will have to close at 11pm rather than 2am on weekdays and 4am on Friday and Saturday nights.

Eight conditions were added to any future licence, including the stipulation that CCTV be installed.