Violent Teenage Gangs Caused Huge Brawl In Melbourne
Witnesses have shared shocking videos on social media of the brawl that broke out in Melbourne over the weekend between Sudanese gang members and rival Pacific Islanders.
The rioters attempted to pick fights with festival-goers in Federation Square on Saturday night, with police saying a gang based in Melbourne’s southern suburbs, called Apex, was responsible for the riot at the Moomba festival, Victoria’s Labour day long-weekend.
Victoria police’s chief commissioner, Graham Ashton, described the scene as “abhorrent and violent,” as gang members began to use chairs as weapons and terrified bystanders ran for cover and others hid inside restaurants.
According to The Age, police first used capsicum spray during the violent gang rampage to disperse the crowd at Federation Square about 8pm.
"We were absolutely terrified," Troy West, from Bendigo, who spent 45 minutes locked inside a Federation Square restaurant said.
“We have good-quality CCTV footage and we’ll be making further arrests this week of ringleaders and other people engaging in this unacceptable violence,” Ashton said and added his taskforce has so far arrested 33 gang members of the Apex gang since November last year.
“We’ll be moving to make sure those people are under arrest,” Ashton assured.
There were 11 separate incidents throughout the city, he said, including assaults and robberies, and a police officer was also hit with an object.
Four additional rioters were arrested - two for drunkenness, one for carrying a stun gun, and another for allegedly knocking an officer's radio or phone into their face.
-mD
