BEIRUT: The head of Beirut’s auto inspection center urged Lebanese authorities Friday to protect his facility amid a work stoppage observed by employees a day after a brawl left seven people injured.

“We call on the Internal Security Forces to send members to protect us – citizens and employees,” Walid Suleiman, head of the vehicle inspection center in Hadath, east of Beirut, told The Daily Star.

His remarks came a day after a fight with sticks and razors at his center left seven people injured.

Sleiman also urged judicial authorities to reprimand the assailants involved in the melee.

Beirut lawmaker Mohammad Qabbani also called on authorities to apprehend the attackers.

Interior Minister Marwan Charbel said he believed the scuffle was the byproduct of a longstanding practice between middlemen and a number of employees at the center who he said were receiving bribes.

“On many occasions, a few employees [at the Hadath center] would allow cars [that should fail] to pass the inspection test,” Charbel told The Daily Star. “Such deals between brokers and some employees led to yesterday’s incident,” he said, adding that this kind of practice was only being carried out at the Hadath center and not at any other auto inspection center given its geographical location.

Suleiman denied that any of his staff members were being bribed. “This is very wrong,” he said. “What happened yesterday was a perfect proof [of this fact].”

Thursday’s scuffle broke out after a broker, identified as Mohammad Ali Khatoun, became aggressive with an employee at the center who informed him that a car he had wanted to pass failed the test.

During the fight, Khatoun called in a group of men from the Miqdad family who promptly showed up, firing shots in the air.

As a result a fight broke out between employees at the center and people waiting for their vehicles to get inspected. A total of seven people were injured as a result of the scuffle.

Charbel shared Suleiman’s concerns for protection and promised to dispatch security men.

Suleiman said he would keep the facility closed until he is provided with the needed protection.

“This decision is in the best interests of both the employees and citizens who visit the center to get their cars inspected,” he told The Daily Star.