Customers fled a Canberra Chinese restaurant without their lunch as one worker allegedly bit another and slashed with him a knife during a fight that spilled from the kitchen into the dining room.
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Police claim Monday's incident was the culmination of a month-long dispute between Fu Shuang Lo and a colleague, who had been at loggerheads over the docketing system used at Orient Kitchen in Weston.
In documents tendered to the ACT Magistrates Court on Tuesday, police claim the incident began with Lo and his colleague having "a heated disagreement" when an order came through to the kitchen.
Lo, 60, allegedly pointed at the other man and punched him in the face before grabbing "a Chinese-style knife", which was about 30 centimetres long, and raising it.
"[The other man] went to escape the kitchen and, as he did, felt himself being slashed by the knife once in the back," police allege in court documents.
The pair then engaged in a scuffle, according to police, who say the man already bleeding from his back sustained a slash wound to his right hand as he tried to keep the knife away from his body.
Lo is accused of subsequently hitting the other man on the head with a cutlery container before the pair crashed through a door into the dining room, where the defendant allegedly bit his colleague's right arm.
Police say a number of customers ran from the dining room after seeing the injured man, who was spotted brandishing a meat cleaver during the incident, "covered in blood".
Once the commotion had come to an end, Lo is said to have taken a tissue from the counter and left.
A waitress, who later told police she had been alerted to the fight by the sounds of screaming from the kitchen, phoned one of the restaurant's owners and asked her to urgently come to the eatery.
When the owner arrived, she found the alleged victim "sitting on a chair in the kitchen, covered in blood".
She took the man across the road to the Cooleman Court Medical Centre, where staff called the ACT Ambulance Service.
After paramedics had taken the alleged victim to hospital, with non-life-threatening injuries, police say the owner and waitress used a hose, mop and broom to clean up the blood that had been left behind in the restaurant.
Police eventually arrived at the scene, where forensic investigators collected samples and took photographs.
About an hour after they had arrived, police spotted Lo walking back towards the restaurant and arrested him.
He was taken to the ACT police watch house, where he spent a night in custody as prospective customers were informed, by a handwritten sign on the restaurant's door, that Orient Kitchen was closed because of "unforeseen technical problems".
When Lo faced court on Tuesday, assisted by a Cantonese interpreter, he did not enter a plea to a charge of recklessly inflicting grievous bodily harm.
He applied for bail, which prosecutor Julia Churchill opposed by arguing Lo was likely to interfere with evidence and endanger the safety and welfare of the alleged victim.
Lo's Legal Aid lawyer, Stephanie Corish, told the court the 60-year-old lived in Florey with his wife and four-year-old daughter, for whom he was the sole breadwinner.
Ms Corish said Lo would stop working at the restaurant if granted bail, arguing that if he was "removed from the context in which this occurred" and "cut off" from contacting certain people, the risk of endangering others would be addressed.
She added that the concern about interfering with evidence was "simply not borne out".
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Special magistrate Margaret Hunter said while the allegations were "very serious" and the case against Lo seemed "fairly strong", people were not to be refused bail as a form of "preventative detention".
Ms Hunter said bail should be granted if she could mitigate against any risks, which she believed "strident" conditions would help her achieve.
As she ordered Lo's release, she noted he had no criminal history and had returned to the restaurant to meet police at the owner's request.
Lo, whose bail conditions include a ban on attending the restaurant and a requirement to surrender any passports, is due back in court next month.
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