Two people were taken to hospitals with minor injuries Saturday after an altercation broke out on the beach just north of the Santa Monica Pier, authorities said.
Santa Monica Police Chief David Hodgson said five people were in custody, though none had yet been charged with any crime, after a “mutual combat situation” occurred on the sand near the waterline near Lifeguard Tower 14.
“Two groups started fighting each other,” he said. “They get into a big altercation.”
Police responded to the scene and found a person with a non-life-threatening injury consistent with a stab wound. Another person had what appeared to be a broken ankle. Both were taken to hospitals.
Five others were arrested. Police, Hodgson said, “are still trying to clarify what happened.”
He stressed that there is no threat to the public.
The incident came about a month after two German tourists were stabbed and a third person was injured in apparently unprovoked attacks near the Santa Monica Pier in late May. In that case, a suspect was arrested.
