Girl Shot as Groups Clash at Restaurant : Violence: Police believe brawl at the trouble-plagued Westminster eatery was gang-related. The 15-year-old victim is in fair condition.

A brawl between two groups of teen-agers in a restaurant early Saturday erupted in gunfire, forcing customers to the floor seeking safety and leaving a 15-year-old girl hospitalized with gunshot wounds.

The fight at the Thanh-Hai Restaurant on Bolsa Avenue appeared to be gang-related, with each group yelling its gang name at the other just before several shots were fired, said Police Lt. Andrew Hall.

The same restaurant was the scene of a July 23, 1991, melee in which 17 people were arrested on suspicion of rioting and one was taken into custody on suspicion of willfully injuring a police dog, resisting arrest and inciting a riot.

Two months earlier, a 21-year-old man had been fatally shot in the parking lot.

Authorities declined to name Saturday’s shooting victim because of her age. She was taken to UCI Medical Center in Orange and underwent surgery for two bullet wounds to the torso, hospital officials said. She was listed in fair condition.

No other injuries were reported.

Police are seeking a black-haired man, age 17 to 23, in connection with the 12:40 a.m. shooting.

The 25 to 30 customers in the restaurant “hit the floor” for safety and were screaming, said Thanh Nguyen, 28, a regular at the restaurant who helped fix broken windows later Saturday.

“People are afraid around here today,” Nguyen said. “They’re very scared.”

The trouble started after one group of about 10 teen-agers entered the restaurant and was seated. Then another group of about the same size came to the door, said Cang Cuyes, 27, a restaurant employee.

“I was in the kitchen, but I could hear the shouting,” Cuyes said. “These were all young teen-agers we had never seen before. . . . They have never hung out here before.”

Nguyen said the brawl started when one of the girls in the second group started yelling and fighting with a girl from the group already in the restaurant.

Several shots were fired after the young men in both groups decided to join the fight, Nguyen said.

The girl who was shot was with the first group of teen-agers.

The two groups scattered immediately after the shooting.

Police said their investigation will continue.

“The restaurant has a long history of trouble, despite several changes in owners,” Hall said. “Sometimes the city can do something about a restaurant’s business license, but it’s hard to hold the owner responsible for the conduct of the patrons. In this case, there’s no variables in common, nothing to establish such a nexus. . . . And each new owner can say, ‘This is the first time since I became the owner that anything like this has happened.’ ”

When police tried to break up the 1991 melee and began searching for weapons, some of the patrons turned on them.

But Hall said that since there are no residents nearby, there has never been any public clamor to do anything about the restaurant.

Employees at the eatery on Saturday seemed to be unaware of the earlier incidents.

“This has never happened here before,” said Cuyes. “We are staying open for business. Last night, we had many people in here because they like it. We were full.”

The owner of the restaurant could not be reached for comment.