SYDNEY – Australian police said on June 23 they were investigating an incident at a shopping mall in the southern city of Adelaide that led to an evacuation of the centre and resulted in some minor injuries.
Police said they had received reports of two groups of young males fighting in the foodcourt area of the Westfield Marion Shopping Centre, with some people in the group reported to have weapons.
“As a result of the incident, centre management activated an audible alert and evacuation alarm, and the centre went into lockdown,” police in the state of South Australia said in a statement. “Several shoppers who sought refuge in shops were safely escorted from the centre.”
Police said they were satisfied there was no ongoing threat to the community, but further investigations were being carried out to identify the groups involved.
Assistant Commissioner Scott Duval of the South Australia Police told reporters that footage from the scene showed that the incident was “not a random attack”, according to the Australian Broadcasting Corp.
He said no one was injured in the altercation among the group of boys, but a 77-year-old woman may have fallen during the evacuation and suffered a fracture, and a girl, believed to be 14, also may have been injured during the process.
The incident comes less than three months after a man attacked shoppers with a knife at another Westfield mall in Sydney, killing six people. REUTERS