A man threatened to kill a Merseytravel security guard moments before he plummeted to the floor after having his legs swept from under him.
Footage recorded by an eyewitness which was shared exclusively with The ECHO shows the incident, which happened at around 8pm on Tuesday, January 31 in Queen Square Bus Station. In the first clip, a security guard is heard telling the man "you need to f*****g calm down you know", to which the man said "get your hands off me".
The security guard can then be heard saying "smash me, do it" before pushing the man into the bus lane after he went to square up to him.
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Another guard then tells the man to calm down and the man retaliates by hitting him in the face. He starts shouting "got your hands on me, yeah?" as he approaches the security guard he was initially arguing with.
They then square up to each other before the security guard attempted to hit the man with his left hand. The man then says to the guard "I'll get you lad, I'll kill you", picks up a jacket from the floor and squares up to him again.
The guard pushes the man backwards and he falls onto the floor in the bus lane. A second piece of footage sees the security guard telling the man to calm down again as he holds his arm.
The man gets up off the floor and appears to punch the security guard in the chest, he retaliates by sweeping the man's legs from underneath him and he hits the floor head first. People in the bus station at the time can be heard reacting to incident with a gasp.
The eyewitness who sent the footage claimed the security guard was "over the top" in his retaliation.
He told The ECHO: "I was walking on Queen Square Bus Station with my girlfriend waiting for the bus and there was a male kicking off and the Merseytravel Security handled it over the top and kicked the male on the floor while there where children around. No ambulance was called, police got onto the station and jumped all over the male.
"I think it was out of order when the male hit the floor it looked like he was knocked out for couple of seconds and the security pinned him to the floor until police came."
A spokesperson from Merseyside Police confirmed a 34-year-old man and a 54-year-old woman were arrested following the incident.
The force said: "We were contacted at 8.10pm on Tuesday 31st January to reports of an incident at Queen Square bus station in which a man was reported to have assaulted a woman. The man is then reported to have attempted to assault security staff and make verbal threats.
"Officers attended and a 34-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of assault by beating, affray and possession of a controlled drug. A 54-year-old woman was arrested on suspicion of assault by beating of an emergency worker and being drunk and disorderly in a public place.
"Both have been released under investigation as enquiries continue."
A Merseytravel spokesperson said: "We are aware of an incident at Queen Square bus station which occurred at around 8pm on Tuesday, January 31. As this is now a police matter, it would be inappropriate to comment further at this stage."
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