Police and safety officials want to see security back on the door of Oxford's city centre McDonald's after an outbreak of drunken brawls.

Fights have been breaking out in and around the Cornmarket Street restaurant, which is licensed to serve food and soft drinks until 3am, and now police are monitoring the problem and hope to persuade the company to reinstate door staff.

Insp Graham Sutherland, of Oxford police's city centre unit, said there was a scuffle involving 10 people in the restaurant two Saturdays ago.

A week earlier two men were arrested over a fight inside.

Insp Sutherland said between October 9 and June 4, police had been called to 19 incidents at McDonald's.

He said: "Assaults have occurred, there have been fights and disputes over customer service.

"In the great scheme of things it might not seem like that many incidents, but we do view it as a difficult situation for McDonald's to deal with.

"You can't blame McDonald's staff for the type of people they are allowing in.

"They aren't serving them the drink, so why should they be penalised for that?

"However, I think we should manage the people going into the premises if they are drunk and Nightsafe, the police and our licensing staff are monitoring the situation."

Karen Crossan, of Nightsafe, a partnership between city centre pubs, the city council and police, which aims to clamp down on booze-fuelled violence, said: "The problem is obviously the amount of incidents happening in and around the premises.

"Until about two years ago, they had door staff. They are a late-night establishment and need door staff.

"They don't serve alcohol but they are letting drunk people in. Having door staff would stop a lot of the incidents that have happened there recently."

McDonald's spokeswoman Aimee Dyer said: "As a family restaurant, McDonald's first priority is always for the health and safety of our customers.

"Our McDonald's restaurant on Cornmarket Street is not currently aware of any levels of public disorder.

"There are therefore no plans to reinstate door staff. We will continue to work with the police and the local community and monitor levels of disorder."

When told of the police's concerns and statistics, another McDonald's spokesman, Joe Zammuto, said: "Our security staff will be monitoring CCTV to see if we have got an issue."