Melbourne anti-Covid vaccine protests turn violent as police fire pepper balls, smoke bombs
Demonstrators hit a police car during a protest against COVID-19 regulations in Melbourne on September 21, 2021
An anti-Covid vaccine lockdown protest on the streets of Melbourne turned chaos on Tuesday after the police fired pepper balls and stinger grenades in a bid to disperse the agitators.
More than 1,000 demonstrators dressed as construction workers clashed with police for the second consecutive day and rampaged through the centre of Australia's second-largest city, lighting flares, throwing bottles, attacking police cars and chanting their opposition to vaccines and lockdown restrictions.
Police said 62 protesters were arrested and three police officers were injured along with one journalist.
Victoria’s police chief commissioner Shane Patton said officers used pepper balls, foam baton rounds, smoke bombs and stinger grenades which deploy rubber pellets.
“These crowd control equipment munitions were necessary … because we can’t allow this type of conduct to go on,” he told reporters later in the day.
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Video footage on social media showed police cars trying to leave one area before a mob attacked the vehicles with bottles and smashed windows. A line of riot police, weapons raised, then drove the protesters back.
Patton said they had a tip-off that protests have been planned again for Wednesday and he implored people to stay at home.
“No one benefits from this type of conduct, we will be out in force again, I can assure you of that,” he told reporters.
“I won’t disclose what our tactics will be tomorrow, but they will be different. Please just stay home, we do not want a confrontation.”
Melbournehas been in strict lockdown for seven weeks, as the city struggles to curb an outbreak of the fast-spreading Delta variant.
Several clusters have been linked to construction sites, where Covid containment measures are said to be lax.
In response, authorities have introduced ever-tougher restrictions, closing work site tea rooms, announcing mandatory vaccination for labourers and, most recently, closing almost all construction sites for two weeks.
(WIth inputs from agencies)