Lunchtime shoppers looked on in horror as a group of Kosovans with weapons including a Samurai sword battled in the town centre, a jury has been told.

The group from the former Balkans are said to have fought in the precinct around Regent Street while members of the public went about their business.

Swindon Crown Court was told yesterday about the incident in May this year as teenager Fred Pjetri, of Maxwell Street, stood trial for a string of alleged offences.

Pjetri, 19, is accused of possessing an offensive weapon, violent disorder and wounding Gazmend Shala with intent to cause grievous bodily harm.

Richard Smith, prosecuting, told the jury of six men and six women how two groups of Kosovans met in the town centre at about 2pm on Monday, May 8.

On the Saturday before, he said Pjetri had asked a woman he knew to buy a Samurai sword from a second-hand shop in the town.

In the weeks running up to the incident he said Pjetri, who had helped other Kosovans settle in Swindon, had fallen out with Mr Shala, who lived with fellow Kosovans in Manchester Road.

"Quite why they fell out isn't important and you may never know from the evidence you hear in this court," he told them.

"What is important was that this defendant was sufficiently aggrieved to plan an assault on the rivals from Manchester Road and rivals they had become."

He said that in the ensuing fight Pjetri used the sword to stab Mr Shala in the stomach leaving him with serious injuries.

Video footage from store security cameras showed him leaving the scene and concealing the sword as he passed Iceland heading for Havelock Street, he claimed.

And when he got home he said Pjetri returned the sword to the woman who had bought it and she told police it was wet at the time.

Mr Smith said that was because Pjetri and his friends had cleaned it of blood and fingerprints.

He said that the police went to Pjetri's home and arrested him before he could flee the town.

He was questioned but refused to comment.

Pjetri denies all three charges.

Speaking through an interpreter, Kosovo-born Gazmend Shala, whose first language is Albanian, told the court that he had arrived in England on November 9, 1998, to ask for asylum. He was living in a guest house in Swindon at the time of the alleged attack.

On May 8 he was with three friends after collecting shopping vouchers from social services when he met Pjetri who was with five or six friends.

"They started to abuse us with abusive language," he said. "I started to walk away but they came after us.

"I tried to talk to Fred. He pulled a sword and hit me with a sword. It was a very fast-moving action. He stabbed me to the left hand side under the ribs. The sword went under my jacket, through my shirt and into my body."

Mr Shala said he could not remember what happened next. "I moved away and I saw the police. A bit later I felt a terrible, terrible pain."

The trial continues.