SOLDIERS guarding the Queen during her summer holiday at Balmoral were involved in a pub brawl with locals who accused them of chatting up women at the village disco.
The punch-up began in the early hours of July 27 at the Barrel Lounge in Ballater on Royal Deeside as the final song was being played. It is understood that there was a heated exchange between local men thought to be upset at the Royal Scots soldiers flirting with local women. Punches were thrown, glasses and bottles were smashed and a battle involving up to 30 men spilt out on to the church green in front of the pub, police said.
Police arrived quickly and broke up the fight, but by then one woman needed hospital treatment after cutting her foot on glass and a man had been knocked unconscious.
The soldiers were taken back to the nearby Victoria Barracks and were later questioned by Grampian Police, as were a number of locals, three of whom have since been reported to the procurator fiscal.