Amid coronavirus panic-buying, 2 injured in fight in Sam's Club wine aisle

Amid panic-buying at grocery stores across the country due to the coronavirus crisis, a fight broke out at a Sam's Club in Georgia that ended with two men wielding broken wine bottles against each other.

Police said the dispute began in the wine aisle at the store in Hiram, about 25 miles northwest of Atlanta, when a man in a motorized shopping cart bumped into a couple's cart, which was carrying their child.

It was captured on video that was uploaded to Twitter and which had been viewed almost 700,000 times as of Friday morning.

Officers were called to the Sam’s Club at approximately 5:30 p.m. about an assault in progress, Hiram Police Sgt. Edwin Ivey told NBC News on Friday.

Within minutes of arriving, officers found two men with cuts surrounded by a small crowd of onlookers.

Investigators determined that after the motorized shopping cart bumped into a man and woman's cart, the woman confronted the man in the motorized cart, struck him with her hand and accused him of ramming their cart.

The man in the motorized cart tried to back away, but the couple confronted him again, "escalating the confrontation further," Hiram police said in a statement.

He told investigators he grabbed a wine bottle to defend himself from the couple, Ivey said. The other man then grabbed a wine bottle, and the two men began striking each other with the bottles, according to Ivey.

"The altercation continued after the bottles were broken, causing lacerations to both parties," the police statement said. The fight ended with both men on the ground among the broken glass.

The two men were treated for non-life-threatening injuries.

Bystanders assisted in separating the two men until police arrived. The names of the two men and woman are not being released, Ivey said, but criminal charges have been prepared for all three.

A manager at the Sam's Club did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.