- Teenager in serious condition after alleged stabbing
- Men ‘with machetes’ shut down shopping centre
A teenager has been left in a serious condition and a shopping centre plunged into lockdown following a horror stabbing.
Emergency services rushed to Northland Shopping Centre, Preston, in the north of Melbourne, at 2.39pm on Sunday after receiving reports of an assault.
‘Police are responding to reports of numerous people fighting at a shopping centre on Murray Road in Preston this afternoon,’ a Victoria Police spokeswoman said.
‘The shopping centre has been locked down while the incident is ongoing.’
Several police cars and ambulances are on scene.
Paramedics have treated a male teenager for injuries to his upper body and have since transported him to Royal Melbourne Hospital in a serious condition.
Another ambulance crew remains on scene, a spokesman confirmed, but it is understood just one victim has been treated so far.
Customers have locked themselves in shops inside the centre, after shouting alerted them to the danger on Sunday afternoon.
A Melbourne shopping centre has been plunged into lockdown over reports of a knife fight
Shoppers were sent running for cover after the fight reportedly broke out in the shopping centre
Some have reported entering the centre’s Kmart, Myers and Smiggle outlets.
‘Some guys with machetes apparently. We just arrived and everyone was running out telling us to run,’ one local said.
‘My daughter is currently locked in Smiggle and called me saying someone running around with knives,’ another said.
‘My friends are in a shop calming the staff down. They heard all the shouting and went into the nearest shop and got the staff to lock the doors,’ a third reported.
Later, when shoppers were permitted to exit the building, a ‘traumatising’ scene awaited them.
‘By the time we got out it was all police taped, there was paper towel covered in blood all over the floor, there were (paramedics), helicopters and about 70 police officers,’ one woman shared.
‘As we were walking out there was a young guy in handcuffs. Fair to say my kids are a little traumatised!’
An unverified photo circulating the internet appeared to show three men facing off in the centre’s outdoor food court.
Images circulating social media appeared to show two young men pinned to the ground by police
Dozens of emergency vehicles raced to the scene, with a nearby street littered with police cars and ambulances
Others showed two young men pinned to the ground by police.
A local radio station heard the centre became ‘absolute chaos’, after caller Chris dialled in.
He told 3AW there was no PA system in the centre, and police were directing terrified shoppers to ‘just go, just go’ at the centre’s exits.
‘We got in our car, hit gridlock trying to get out,’ he said.
‘It’s chaos there at the moment, it’s absolute chaos.’
More to come.
Stores locked down with customers left waiting inside for authorities to respond to the incident
