Eminem assault charge is dropped

Eminem was sentenced to two years' probation in 2001

A man who accused rapper Eminem of attacking him in a club has dropped the charges, police have said.

The man claimed Eminem punched him in a Detroit strip club in the early hours of Thursday.

"He said that the suspect had struck him several times," said Detroit Police Department spokeswoman Sergeant Eren Stephens Bell.

A spokesman for Eminem, real name Marshall Bruce Mathers III, was not immediately available for comment.

Biographical film

If charges had been brought against the 33-year-old rapper, it would have been Eminem's first brush with the law since 2001.

He was sentenced to two years' probation for carrying a concealed weapon outside a Detroit nightclub.

The Cheetah's strip club, where Thursday's alleged assault took place, is on Eight Mile - the road that marks border between Detroit and its more prosperous suburbs.

Eight Mile is also the name of Eminem's 2002 semi-biographical film, in which he starred with Brittany Murphy.

Eminem's friend and fellow rapper Proof, who also appeared in the film, was killed in April as result of a dispute that erupted in another nightclub on Eight Mile Road.