About 50 brawling teenagers have forced a notorious Melbourne shopping centre into lockdown, but police made no arrests despite deploying pepper spray to stop the massive fight.
Students from several different high schools descended on Pacific Werribee in Hoppers Crossing in the city’s west on Thursday afternoon and clashes then erupted inside the busy mall.
Videos of the wild scenes show a huge mob of teenagers, mainly of African appearance, punching and kicking each other while some could be heard shouting “keep stomping, keep stomping, keep stomping”.
The shopping centre was put into lockdown before police used pepper spray to break up the fight, but made no arrests, 9News reported.
The violence unfolded in front of horrified bystanders doing their Easter shopping.
Just last month Premier Jacinta Allan announced Victoria Police Protective Services Officers (PSOs) would be patrolling the centre, which has become a hotspot for African gang crime in recent years.
In August machete-wielding African and Pacific Islander gangs fought inside the shopping centre, resulting in four teenagers being charged.
During the first incident two rival groups allegedly armed with machetes and swords fought inside the JD Sports store, and two wounded teenagers aged 14 and 16 later took themselves to hospital for treatment.
Then two days later a 14-year-old boy was allegedly attacked by six males wielding machetes inside the shopping centre, and was taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
Header image: Video of the brawl (9News).
