Terrified mothers were forced to flee a Melbourne shopping center with their children after a bloody fight broke out between a group of men with machetes.
The group of men clashed inside the Woodgrove shopping center in Melton, in Melbourne’s northwest, about 5pm on Monday.
Witnesses claim the men, who they believe were teenagers, were armed with a variety of weapons and were seen waving knives and throwing chairs during the melee.
One woman said she fled the center with her children after seeing a man “waving a machete.”
“Children fighting, throwing chairs… I ran out with my children and advised everyone who entered to turn around,” she wrote on social media.
A bloody fight broke out between a group of men, some wielding machetes, at the Woodgrove shopping center in Melton, in Melbourne’s northwest, on Monday.
The woman said she was “disgusted” with the group’s actions, just days after six people died in a horror stabbing attack at Westfield Bondi Junction last Saturday.
‘You’d think these idiots would take a break after what happened in Bondi. “I’m so upset I had to explain to my five-year-old son why we had to run out of the stores,” she wrote.
Woodgrove needs police presence during all hours it is open and these little idiots need harsher punishments. Human life has no value.’
Another shopper said she and her three children hid inside the baby changing rooms with other frightened mothers while the fight unfolded.
“It was a machete that a teenager pulled out,” he wrote on Facebook. ‘It happened right where the play area is, in front of the parents and babies changing room.
‘My three children and I ran to the parents’ room with a group of mothers and small children. ‘It’s sad that my six-year-old son was so scared because he saw the machete.’
Another witness explained that people started “throwing things” at one of the men after he entered the food court with a “big knife.”
Three of the men were seen leaving the shopping center covered in blood, and one held a sweater over his head to cover a wound.
Some shoppers fled the center while others found a safe place to hide after seeing the men holding large knives (file image)
Victoria Police told WhatsNew2Day Australia the incident was being investigated after a man was found with injuries inside the complex.
“It is believed that a group of men were fighting at the Barries Road complex at around 5pm, possibly armed with knives,” police said.
“One of the men was taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. The others involved have not yet been located at this time.
Police are urging anyone with information to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
It comes after six innocent shoppers, including five women and a man, were fatally stabbed in a terror attack at Westfield Bondi Junction at around 3.20pm on Saturday.
The killer, Joel Cauchi, 40, was seen walking through the center wielding a 30cm hunting knife and stabbing shoppers at random.
Twelve other people, including a nine-month-old baby, were seriously injured before NSW Police Inspector Amy Scott confronted Cauchi alone and shot him dead.