Police have commenced an investigation after a security guard was ‘glassed’ during an altercation at a hotel in Newcastle overnight.

Shortly before 9pm on Friday 22 March a 29-year-old security guard approached three men in the beer garden of a hotel on Beaumont Street at Hamilton due to their intoxication.

The guard told the men they were to be ejected from the hotel and an argument commenced.

As the guard tried to seize alcohol from one of the group he was assaulted by all three and a schooner glass struck him in the left side of his head.

Two hotel patrons came to the guard’s assistance but they were also assaulted by the group who then left the premises.

Police from Newcastle City Local Area Command attended and established a crime scene.

The injured man was treated at John Hunter Hospital for a serious laceration to his left ear while the two hotel patrons suffered bruising from the altercation.

Investigators seized several items for forensic testing and will examine CCTV footage from the hotel.

Police have urged anyone with information about the incident to come forward.