Brutal pizza shop attack leaves two men hospitalised in Melbourne

A vicious turf war between rival pizza shops has exploded into violence across Melbourne’s inner north, landing two men in hospital after a brutal attack captured on CCTV.

The shocking footage shows three men storming into a Brunswick pizzeria, launching an all-out assault on the owner, his friend and a paying customer who was caught in the middle.

Fists, chairs and even a fire extinguisher were thrown during three minutes of madness inside the restaurant.

The owner’s friend tried to defend himself with a crowbar, but in the chaos he lost the bar to his attacker and was left on his hands and knees, defenceless and barely conscious as his wife pleaded with the trio to stop.

Andrea Carulli, the pizzeria owner, now has a bruised eye and back pain following the attack. His friend remains in intensive care with severe injuries.

“I’ve never seen anything like that. And his mouth, blood everywhere,” Carulli said. “Horrible. It was a nightmare.”

The violent incident was actually the second attack of the night. Minutes earlier, the ringleader had tried to assault Carulli on the footpath, only to receive a mouthful of fire retardant.

According to Carulli, the seeds of the feud were sown last month when he opened his new Brunswick location.

“They’re gonna destroy my business and me because this is their area. This is our first week, actually, so we open Tuesday. All this because we are competition,” he said.

After owning a pizza shop in Pascoe Vale for the past five years, Carulli moved to Brunswick for the community atmosphere.

Despite his injuries and the clean-up still underway, the determined restaurateur is already back in the kitchen planning for the night ahead.