Zac Efron [Photo/Agencies]

 

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Zac Efron's bodyguard claims the actor saved his life.

The 26-year-old star was hit in the face after getting into a "full-blown" bust-up in a "very bad area" of downtown Los Angeles shortly after midnight on Sunday, but his bodyguard insists the 'High School Musical' star only stepped into the brawl to defend him.

The security man, who asked to remain anonymous, told gossip website TMZ.com that he and Zac were "cruising" around LA on their way to a restaurant in Little Tokyo when they ran out of gas and were "attacked" by three men.

He claims the transients went after him with "a spear" and that Zac, who went to rehab twice last year for cocaine addiction, got out of the car and began swinging a vodka bottle to fend off the attack and saved his life.

The hunky star previously told police officers they had run out of gas and were sitting in their car for a tow truck when he threw a bottle out of the window and it smashed on the pavement near their alleged attackers.

He said the three men confronted them because they believed the bottle had been deliberately thrown at them and two of them then attacked the bodyguard, and according to the star, he got hit on the mouth when he got out of the car to help.

Zac said: "It was the hardest I've ever been hit in my life."

But his bodyguard, who reportedly has a criminal record for drugs and violence, insists the actor didn't throw the bottle at all and merely used it to defend them.

Police sources said no one was arrested because they viewed it as "mutual combat."

A spokesperson for the actor - who broke his jaw last November following a fall at home - has not yet commented on the incident.