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A beach out­ing in To­co turned vi­o­lent on Mon­day af­ter an ar­gu­ment over wa­ter safe­ty end­ed with a man be­ing struck in the head by a life­guard.

Po­lice said the 34-year-old man was at Saly­bia Beach with rel­a­tives and friends around 3.45 pm when he got in­to a heat­ed ex­change with the life­guard over the pres­ence of chil­dren too close to the wa­ter be­tween the flags.

The ar­gu­ment es­ca­lat­ed and the life­guard al­leged­ly picked up a met­al flag­pole and hit the man on the left side of his head. The blow caused the man to col­lapse and lose con­scious­ness.