SCENES of violence witnessed outside a Wirral pub on the day it reopened after lockdown rules eased were blasted as "appalling."

A video showing a group of people fighting outside the Rockvilla Hotel in Rock Ferry on Saturday was widely shared on social media.

Rock Ferry councillor Yvonne Nolan said: "I saw the video footage that somebody had taken, it's absolutely appalling."

It is believed that the fight started when people were asked to leave the pub.

As two men exchange blows, one woman falls to the ground, and it appears one of the men misses his aim and throws a punch at a parked car instead.

A number of the group then peel away and start to walk away down Old Chester Road, with the dispute still raging. Police are aware of the reports of disorder.

Cllr Nolan added: "I think it is too early to let people go back to pubs. It has all been done very quickly, rather than relaxing one small part and allowing time to see the impact of that.

"I understand the motivation is the economy and that is vital and important, but at the end of the day people's lives matter more."

The Labour councillor thought it was "unfortunate" that rules were relaxed on a Saturday, as everyone would be hitting the town.

But she insisted people could enjoy a drink while respecting social distancing and had a message for pub-goers.

She said: "Social distancing is absolutely for the good of everyone. If people don’t observe social distancing they need to understand the huge risks being run in contributing to a second wave of coronavirus.

"We will be back in lockdown if people do not be sensible."

Among those commenting on social media was 'Wirralian', who said: “Revolting behaviour from a small minority, yet again spoiling it for the majority.

"I hope to God they’re banned for life, preferably from ANY pub."

Wendy Fletcher said: "It's never going to work. Once alcohol is consumed in copious amounts, social distancing goes out the window.

"Feel so sorry for the staff. There’s going to be a big spike shortly with all this.

"Terrible times."

Following the incident, the owners of the pub put this message on their Facebook page: "Due to people not listening to staff and risking everyone's safety we will be closing for the foreseeable future until it is safe to open.

"Sorry to disappoint our customers who have shown our staff the respect they deserve.

"To the people who haven’t you are not welcome at the Rockvilla and camera footage will be reviewed and actions will be taken accordingly."

In a further message, they added: "As soon as we told people to leave they were not happy and it went off really bad outside but we couldn’t keep that many people in there."

Commenting on the incident on Facebook, Claire Anderson said: "How disrespectful!

"Staff and owners of pubs have suffered during lockdown and the one day they [needed to] rely on the public and they let them down.

"Good on the pub for closing this is disgusting behaviour.”

A reader with the username 'Ice Age' said: "Should have never opened all pubs until everyone was back at work."

The Rockvilla was not the only Wirral pub to suffer from yobbish behaviour by some of its customers.

A Facebook post from Mr White's sports bar in Birkenhead also said it had to close early, while the Derby Arms in Rock Ferry posted that it would not be opening today "due to police calling in, and people not following guidelines."

The owners of the Argyll Bar and Carvery in Eastham also took the decision to close early "for the safety of staff and customers."