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Read the press release here.

Cops Investigating Videotaped Teen Brawl in Astoria Park

ASTORIA — Cops are investigating a violent brawl among a mob of teens in Astoria Park last week that was captured on video and posted online.

The footage, which was recorded using a smartphone, shows several teenagers punching and shoving one another. One girl is shown dragged to the ground by her hair while several other girls kicked and punched her as she curls into a ball on the ground.

City Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. said he alerted officers from the 114th Precinct after a Facebook friend sent him a link to the video two days ago.

Vallone said the brawl, which took place last Friday, had been a pre-arranged fight between a group of local high school girls and group of middle schoolers to "settle a previous altercation," but that it quickly escalated.

"That’s no longer an afterschool fight. That’s a vicious mob beating," he said. "Because these knuckleheads like to post the stuff online, we have very clear views of the ringleaders' faces."

The Associated Press reported Friday that one of the victims suffered a fractured nose and two bruises on each eye.

An NYPD spokesman said Friday that no arrests have been made.

Vallone said the incident is indicative of the need for more police presence in city parks, saying an average of about five Parks Enforcement Patrol officers patrol each borough on a given day. The city recently announced that it would be hiring 81 more parks officers in the coming months, he said.

"We just don’t have enough cops," the councilman said. "If we had them they probably would have noticed a group of teens running through the park."