Reporter Ishbel Matheson: "The cause of the violence is unclear, but there have been suggestions of a drugs vendetta"

A fight had apparently broken out between Asian groups on The Terriers estate in High Wycombe. As the ambulances carried away the injured, police helicopters circled above.

A hand gun was later recovered from near the scene of the violence but no shots were fired. Witnesses also said they saw baseball bats and an axe.

The injured were taken to Wycombe General Hospital, but one man was transferred to Stoke Mandeville Hosptial in Aylesbury, which specialises in head and spinal injuries.

A Wycombe General spokesman said: "Following the incident, eight males were brought to casualty.

"One of the men had injuries which have resulted in him being transferred to Stoke Mandeville for specialist treatment.

"The remaining admissions have serious injuries but none of them are life threatening. They are all in a stable condition."

A Thames Valley police spokesman said: "All the injured have been taken to hospital by ambulance and we are interviewing a number of people on the estate to see what happened."

A spokesman for the Buckinghamshire ambulance service said he had no reports of gunshot injuries in the violence.

"We understand it is the result of some sort of family feud involving a number of people of Asian origin," he said.