Entertainment

Police are investigating whether shots were fired during the bottle-throwing brawl that reportedly took place between hip hop stars Chris Brown and Drake in a Manhattan nightclub.

Witnesses told the NYPD they heard a gun go off amid the ruckus in the early hours of Thursday, although none said they saw the weapon.

‘We are investigating the possibility of gunshots fired at the club,’ NYPD spokesman Paul Browne told the New York Daily News.

‘We have several eyewitnesses telling detectives they heard what they believed to be shots fired during the disturbance.’

Witnesses claimed the brawl - which saw at least five people hospitalised - came after Brown and Drake scrapped over their former flame, singer Rihanna.

On Thursday night, Brown’s lawyer reportedly gave detectives ‘physical evidence’ allegedly proving Drake was involved in the fight - even though the hip hop artist said he had been outside.

Lawyer Mark Geragos went to the NYPD late on Thursday night to present evidence showing that Drake was one of the aggressors, law enforcement sources have claimed.

 Brown is also reportedly being treated as a ‘witness and victim’ rather than a suspect in the melee, which turned the New York City nightclub, W.i.p, into a war zone.

Brown spoke to detectives about the incident late on Thursday night, yet Drake has not.

There have been conflicting reports about what happened at the SoHo nightspot.

One of the club-goers caught in the middle of the fracas was Hollie C, an Australian tourist who was rushed to Bellevue Hospital after she was smashed in the head with a flying bottle during the fight.

A gruesome photo shows a gash in her head and her face covered with blood. She needed 16 stitches to close the wound.

Hollie told TMZ.com she went to W.i.P. with friends on Wednesday night, unaware they were sitting in between two angry rappers and their entourages. Suddenly, all hell broke loose.

dailymail.co.uk