A man was stabbed in the back during a brawl in Pavilion Gardens on Saturday afternoon.
The 34-year-old is being treated for an injury to his back which is thought to be a stab wound after being attacked by a group of people just before 4.30pm.
Two men were arrested in connection with the incident.
Police also received a report of a fight involving a group of around four people at the basketball court on the seafront near the i360, just minutes before at 4.23pm, which officers believe may be linked.
Detective Inspector Neil Phillips said: “Both of these incidents took place in the middle of the day during a busy Saturday afternoon.
“We are asking anyone who saw the events unfold, or anything suspicious around that time, to contact police online or via 101, quoting serial 869 of 13/05.
“This is understood to be an isolated incident and I would like to reassure the public that there is no wider risk of harm.”
Two men – aged 37 and 28 – of no fixed address, have been arrested on suspicion of wounding with intent and released on conditional bail while enquiries continue.
The 37-year-old was also arrested on suspicion of possession of a Class B drug.
Any stabbing is just awful, but the headline is perhaps a bit misleading in that the Pavilion Gardens are not to blame, any more than the ‘basket ball courts near the i360’ are to blame.
I guess we’ll have to wait for the case to come to court before we find out if this was just a drunken brawl that got out of hand, or whether there was some drug and rival gang connection.
Either way, the locations of the earlier brawl and later stabbing attack are only important to residents in that both happened in broad daylight and with no apparent police presence in these key city centre areas.
This incident seems also to be an anomaly on a weekend which saw thousands attend The Great Escape weekend and other festival events across the city centre, and where there was surprisingly little trouble.
That area has been taken over. Totally lawless