A Darwin man has been killed in a fight and two people are in custody after a verbal argument turned violent in San Francisco.

Matthew Bate, 33, was travelling in the United States and was at a busy bar district in San Francisco, California, when he got into an early morning dispute with several other people.

Police said the situation turned violent, reported local news outlet Fox 2 News.

Police were called to the Da Vinci Villa hotel in the Russian Hill neighbourhood at about 2.15am local time on Friday morning after receiving reports of the fight, where they found Mr Bate critically injured.

He was pronounced dead upon arrival at hospital.

Two men were detained at the scene and a homicide investigation is currently underway.

Fox 2 News reported that investigators are reviewing CCTV footage from a nearby security camera.

“There have been several people detained regarding this incident and our homicide investigators will be looking into them right now,” said Giselle Talkoff from the San Francisco Police Department.

“At this point we don’t have any specific concerns for public safety.”

Mr Bate lived in the Darwin suburb of Woolner, San Francisco police said.

Fox 2 News reported that Mr Bate was an analytical chemist at SGS Australia, an inspection, verification, testing and certification company.

There were no weapons involved, according to local news outlet KRON4, and police are still investigating whether drugs or alcohol were a factor.

‘Violence in general is endemic to America’

Brett Heckethorn told Fox 2 News he was staying in the Da Vinci Villa hotel and was awakened by officers who, after the fight, were going door to door looking for suspects.

“Just banging on the door, saying ‘open up, open up’, we said, ‘what, why?’ and then we opened the door, they looked at us, nope, we’re not the guys, so they moved on,” he said.

“Violence in general is endemic to America, I think that’s the problem that we’re having these days.”

Andrew Borden told the station he was also staying at the hotel.
“It shocks me, but it’s not like it doesn’t happen in every big city,” he said.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said it was providing consular assistance to Mr Bate’s family, and asked that their privacy be respected “at this most difficult time”.