Two men were rushed to the hospital early Friday when a robbery in Times Square turned into a bloody brawl between the victims and the suspects that left one man stabbed, cops said.
Four people were taken into custody for the violent after-midnight fight on Broadway near W. 46th St., according to police. Charges against the suspects were pending.
The violence began a half-hour earlier when a 23-year-old man and a 16-year-old girl were mugged by four men at the corner of W. 43rd St. and Seventh Ave.
After being attacked and robbed of their property, the two were joined by a friend, a 24-year-old man.
They begin searching the area and found the muggers hanging outside the American Eagle Outfitters at 1551 Broadway at W.46th St.
A second fight erupted, during which the 24-year-old friend was stabbed near the left armpit. His younger friend was beaten, cops said.
Responding officers rounded up and arrested the muggers, all men between 24 and 27 years old, and took them into custody for questioning.
The teenage girl with the two men was not harmed, cops said.
The brawl was the latest in a recent rash of violent incidents at the Crossroads of the World.
On May 30, a man was stabbed with a machete during a Times Square turf war among CD vendors near the corner of W. 45th St. and Broadway.
Three suspects ran off but were caught a short time later. Cops charged them with reckless endangerment and obstructing governmental administration, but Manhattan prosecutors declined to prosecute.
Also in May, a school chaperone visiting the city from western Pennsylvania vowed to never return to the city after she was randomly knifed in the chest in the area.
Amber Lohr, 36, and the students were shopping for souvenirs as they neared the corner of W. 43rd St. and Eighth Ave. around 6:15 p.m. on May 11 when 61-year-old Cyril Destin allegedly attacked her, cops said.
Lohr, whose teen daughter was among the group, had never visited New York City before.
The woman survived the attack and Destin was arrested and charged with assault and criminal possession of a weapon.
