A young man has been injured by a three-pronged spear during a clash between about 100 members of two feuding families in a remote aboriginal community.
The two family groups fought with spears, compound bows and metal objects at about 11.45pm on Monday in the troubled Northern Territory township of Wadeye, police said.
The 22-year-old man suffered serious injuries after being hit with the spear, and he was extracted from a home by police and taken to the local health clinic for treatment.
A vehicle was also set alight during the clash, which came less than a week after a 28-year-old man was shot in the chest with an arrow in a drive-by attack near the town’s main oval.
Wadeye is home to about 2,000 people from 28 different clans, but tensions between the family groups have caused numerous incidents in recent years, sparking calls for the warring communities to be relocated to their tribal homelands.
Last month a large group of armed men attacked police with arrows and rocks, in March officers were attacked with spears, in February hundreds of armed men fought in the street during multiple large-scale disturbances, and in January a brawl erupted involving hundreds of people, some armed with edged weapons.
Police patrolling the township regularly seize large weapons caches, which have included spears, bows, crossbows, boomerangs, axes, star pickets, machetes, and traditional aboriginal clubs.
Header image: Wadeye (Google Maps).
