COIMBATORE: A brawl between two motorists at Athupalam here snowballed into a major issue, throwing traffic out of gear in arterial roads of the city for around three hours. Traffic came to a halt between 2 pm and 4 pm at the Athupalam junction, the city’s only entry point from the southern side, after the duo came to blows. This had a cascading effect, leading to traffic snarls in many parts of the city for several hours.It all started when a car driven by one Chinraj brushed past the bike of one Vivek near the Athupalam toll gate. Eyewitnesses said Vivek, who was inebriated, picked up a quarrel with Chinraj. The duo then took up the matter with the police personnel at the nearby Karumbukadai outpost. Even as the police were mediating, a few local residents in the area gathered on the spot and tried to intervene. Vivek, however, slapped Chinraj during the conversation and used derogatory words on the local residents who intervened. “Angered by this, the locals tried to assault Vivek and to protect him we took him into the outpost. As several people in the locality assembled on the spot, traffic was blocked on the stretch. A mob also damaged Vivek’s bike,” said a police official.It took about two hours for senior officials to persuade the crowd to disperse and one hour for traffic to be restored. Traffic in Ukkadam and other main shopping areas in the city like the Town Hall and Big Bazaar Street came to a standstill as a result of the incident. Motorists bound for the southern suburbs had to take smaller roads.
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