MOSCOW, February 28 (RIA Novosti) - Police in St. Petersburg headed off a mass brawl in the center of Russia’s second largest city detaining 16 people, the police said in a statement on Thursday.

A traffic police patrol late on Tuesday night spotted a crowd of some 50 people armed with sticks and poles, who began running away as they saw the policemen.

“Sixteen people were detained and taken to police departments,” the police said, adding that they were all later charged with hooliganism.

The incident comes a week after another mass fight in St. Petersburg which saw four people hospitalized with various injuries. A group of Azerbaijani nationals brawled outside a café on February 19, allegedly over a kidnapped bride, prior to her wedding.