Woodgrove shopping centre, Melton: Families flee machete-wielding mob as savage gang fight erupts at suburban shopping centre in fresh outbreak of terrifying violence
Terrified mothers have been forced to flee a Melbourne shopping centre with their children after a bloody brawl broke out between a group of machete-wielding men.
The group of men clashed inside the Woodgrove Shopping Centre at Melton in Melbourne’s north-west at 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 centre with her children after spotting a man ‘waving a machete around’.
‘Kids brawling, throwing chairs around … Ran out with my kids and advised everyone walking in to turn around,’ she wrote on social media.
A bloody brawl broke out between a group of men, with some wielding machetes, at Woodgrove Shopping Centre at Melton in Melbourne’s north-west on Monday
The woman said she was ‘disgusted’ with the group’s actions, coming just days after after six people were killed in a horror stabbing attack at Westfield Bondi Junction last Saturday.
‘You would think these idiots would take pause after what happened in Bondi. I’m so disgusted that I had to explain to my five-year-old why we had to run out of the shops,’ she wrote.
‘Woodgrove needs a police presence for all hours that it’s open and these little turds need harsher punishments. There is zero value for human life.’
Another shopper said she and her three children hid inside the baby changing rooms with other scared mothers as the brawl unfolded.
‘It was a machete that a teen pulled out,’ she wrote on Facebook. ‘Happened right where the play area is in front of the parents/babies changing room.
‘My three kids and I ran into the parents’ room with a group of mums and young kids. Sad that my six-year-old was so scared because he saw the machete.’
Another witness explained people started ‘throwing things’ at one of the men after he walked into the food court with a ‘large knife’.
Three of the men were spotted leaving the shopping centre covered in blood, with one holding a jumper to his head to cover a wound.
Some shoppers fled the centre while others found a safe place to hide after spotting the men holding large knives (stock image)
Victoria Police told Daily Mail Australia the incident was being investigated after a male was found with injuries inside the complex.
‘It is believed a group of males were fighting at the Barries Road complex around 5pm, possibly armed with edged weapons,’ police said.
‘One of the males has been taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. The others involved are yet to be located at this stage.’
Police are urging anyone with information to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
It comes after six innocent shoppers – including five women and one man – were fatally stabbed in a horror attack at Westfield Bondi Junction at about 3.20pm on Saturday.
The knifeman, Joel Cauchi, 40, was seen walking through the centre wielding a 30cm hunting knife and stabbing shoppers at random.
Twelve others – including a nine-month-old baby – were seriously wounded before NSW Police Inspector Amy Scott single-handedly confronted Cauchi and shoot him dead.
