Key Points
- Police had received reports of two groups of teenage boys fighting in the food court.
- The teenagers involved in the incident have yet to be located.
- Social media footage from shoppers showed heavily armed police officers storming into the centre as the incident unfolded.
Teenage boys armed with expandable batons triggered a major police response at an Adelaide shopping centre, which was placed into lockdown.
Shoppers at the Westfield Marion Centre in Adelaide were urged to stay away from the area on Sunday afternoon.
South Australia Police Assistant Commissioner Scott Duvall said police were called to the scene after 2:52 pm when police received reports of two groups of teenage boys fighting in the food court, including some armed with expandable batons.
“(One group) approached another group of boys and an altercation occurred,” he told reporters at the scene on Sunday.
“The expandable batons are seen and at this stage, we cannot discount any other weapons but we have reports that a knife may be involved.”
Duval said three boys chased the other teenagers through the centre and entered the David Jones store.
“That was the first part of our focus of where we put our specialist attention, to start clearing the centre to ensure the safety of all people could be assured,” he said.
“We are at the point now where we are able to clear the centre safely with specialist police and allow people that were still sheltered in place to leave.”
Police are confident the fight between the two groups of teenagers was not a random attack. Source: AAP / Matt Turner
The teenagers involved in the incident have yet to be located but police said they were “confident” the groups would be tracked down.
There is no ongoing threat to the community, according to police.
“I would say that it’s clear from the vision this is not a random attack,” Duval said.
“The boys would appear to be known to each other, but obviously we’re still in the early days of investigation of the incident.”
Duval said the police’s reaction to such incidents had changed since the Bondi attack earlier this year.
Six people were killed and several injured after a man attacked shoppers with a knife at a Westfield mall in Bondi Junction, Sydney, on 13 April.
“These types of reactions to these incidents are very much influenced by incidents like Bondi,” Duval said.
“We have a fantastic relationship with these retailers and the exercising is what allows us to put in place a very good response.”
Police said no shoppers appear to have been injured in the brawl, although a woman in her 70s has been treated for a fracture and another person for a non-life-threatening injury sustained afterwards during the evacuation process.
Photos of large digital signs inside the centre warned members of the public of an armed offender in the complex.
Social media footage from shoppers showed armed officers storming into the centre while dozens of shoppers attempted to run to safety.
A young woman, who was in the cinema when the commotion began, told ABC News how it unfolded.
“We were in the movies and we just heard this noise going on saying ’emergency’… and nobody really knew what it was – if it was a phone or something,” she said.
“Someone went out of the movies and all of a sudden everyone just came running in – just sprinting incoming, yelling ‘run, run’.
“Then we got up and started sprinting towards the emergency exit.”
