Stourbridge Road and Lye High Street have reopened following a police incident which saw a man attacked with a machete.

Several men, armed with baseball bats and at least one machete, are believed to have attacked the victim outside the Fruit Shop on the High Street, before fleeing in a car as the victim lay bloodied on the floor.

The man, named locally as Mohammed Taz, aged 36, suffered head injuries in the attack in High Street, Lye, around 9.30am today.

Shocked workers from neighbouring businesses described seeing five men, wearing balaclavas and armed with weapons, pile out of a car and head into The Fruit Shop which Mr Taz has run for more than 20 years.

The victim ran to the Nisa shop across the road before the police were called as the attackers fled in a black car. He was seen covered in blood outside his shop before paramedics arrived.

Police said the incident was thought to be be a 'targeted attack'. A 20-metre stretch of the High Street was cordoned off until around 2pm as a result. A spokesperson for West Midlands Police said:

“Police were alerted at 9.30am to an incident at a shop in Lye High street during which a man was attacked with a machete.

“It’s understood this was a targeted attack as the result of an on-going dispute and was not a random attack. There is not deemed to be any risk to the wider public.

The High Street reopened to traffic at around 2pm. However Singh Newsmarket remains cordoned off to the public and there are two officers posted outside and police activity taking place inside. A West Midlands Ambulance Service spokesman added: 

"We were called at 9.38am to reports of an assault. We treated one man with a head injury and took him to hospital."

One trader in the High Street told the Stourbridge News: "The police vans were everywhere - all hell seemed to have broken loose."