SNOOP DOGG was released from police custody without charge yesterday after a fight at Heathrow in which seven police officers were injured.

The American rapper, whose real name is Calvin Broadus, was arrested with five members of his entourage for violent disorder and affray after an argument over admission to a first-class lounge. After nearly 24 hours spent in a police cell, he was granted bail and driven out of Heathrow police station wearing sunglasses and draped in a blue blanket.

He is claimed to have screamed at staff and thrown bottles of duty-free whisky after his 30-strong entourage was refused entry to the British Airways lounge at Terminal 1. Only three were said to hold first-class tickets. All were subsequently refused entry to their aircraft and banned from travelling with BA.

Police were called and were escorting the group away when another disturbance broke out. One of the officers suffered a broken hand and others had cuts and bruises.

Airport staff claimed that a minder threw a policeman across a room as more than 20 officers tried to restrain the group. The entourage was reported to have been squirted with pepper spray before the 34-year-old rapper was arrested with five other men.

Scotland Yard told The Times that six US citizens had been taken into custody at a police station in West London. A spokesman said: “At 6pm on Wednesday police were alerted to a group of approximately 30 people causing a disturbance in a business lounge at Terminal 1 of Heathrow airport. We understand that the group had been told by an airline that they would not be permitted to board a flight. Officers attended and attempted to direct the group to baggage reclaim. Members of the group then became abusive and pushed officers.”

An airport employee, who asked not to be named, said: “There were all these huge 20-stone men smashing up display cabinets and throwing people around. I saw Snoop Dogg on the ground with four police trying to put him in handcuffs. His minders were throwing bottles of duty-free at people. Then the police used pepper spray on them.”

A BA spokesman said after the incident: “It is within our power to ban them for life and they certainly will not be travelling with us in the near future.”

The fracas will be more than an inconvenience for Snoop Dogg, who was in transit from Los Angeles and was due to fly to Johannesburg for a gig last night. Concerts are also scheduled for Durban and Cape Town.

DOGG DAYS

• Grew up in Long Beach, California, and became an associate of the LA Crips gang. He has been convicted of drug dealing
  
  
• In 1993 he was tried and acquitted of murder, and found fame that year with his debut album Doggystyle
  
  
• Recently he featured in several Hollywood films, including Starsky and Hutch, and was invited to speak at the Oxford Union

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