BBC flooded with complaints over violent pub brawl in EastEnders

More than 600 telephoned and sent angry emails about the broadcast, shown at a time when many youngsters were watching.

The episode, on Tuesday, showed a gang of thugs rampaging through the Old Vic attacking drinkers with baseball bats and glasses and smashing furniture with hammers as they hunted for reformed soccer hooligan Jase Dyer.

Scroll down for more...

Brutal: Thug threatens Patrick Trueman

In one scene, a heavily-pregnant Honey Mitchell was thrown to the floor and had to be taken to hospital.

The programme, which began at 8pm after a warning, was watched by 9.6million people.

John Beyer, director of pressure group Mediawatch UK, said: "This representation of gang violence was completely beyond the pale for a programme that is shown at that time of the evening and repeated in the afternoon on Sunday.

"It's a ratings game and they seem prepared to do anything to attract controversy."

A total of 622 viewers complained directly, condemning the brutality as "disgraceful" and "sickening".

Many more committed their views to internet message boards. One wrote: "The violence, vandalism and terror in the first few minutes of the programme have sickened me for the last time.

Scroll down for more...

"This programme has descended steadily into the mire. My licence fee should not be paying for such mindless trash."

Another said: "Thousands of children up and down the country must have been weaned on this corrupting programme - then we wonder why they start slashing each other in playgrounds."

Ofcom guidelines say "violence, its after-effects and descriptions of violence' must be limited before the 9pm watershed."

It advises that violence that can easily be imitated by children "must not be broadcast before the watershed... unless there is editorial justification".

There were another 300 complaints about a reference in the same programme to the Hillsborough tragedy.

The brawl was followed by character Minty Peterson telling northerner Dyer: "Five years out of Europe because of Heysel, because they penned you lot in to stop you fighting, and then what did we end up with - Hillsborough."

The 1985 Heysel disaster involved the death of 39 football fans at a European Cup Final when a wall separating Liverpool and Juventus fans collapsed.

Scroll down for more...

Savage: One of the gang wrecks the bar

In 1989, 96 Liverpool fans died on overcrowded terraces before the FA Cup semi-final at Hillsborough in Sheffield.

A BBC spokesman said the meaning of the comment may have been misinterpreted.

On the brawl, she claimed the violence was "implied rather than explicit".

The corporation announced last night that the most violent scenes would be edited out of the Sunday omnibus edition, but the Hillsborough reference will be left in.