Shoppers scream as pair swing machetes at each other in Broadmeadows

4 hours ago 2

Horrified Broadmeadows shoppers watched on as two masked assailants wielding machetes fought inside a shopping centre on Friday night.

A fight between two groups broke out in the Broadmeadows Central shopping centre car park about 7.20pm on Friday and moved inside the venue, which is about 15 kilometres north of the Melbourne CBD.

Two people with machetes fight at a Broadmeadows shopping centre on Friday night.

In footage of the incident posted online, onlookers can be seen hiding inside locked storefronts and screaming as two people clad in black swing their machetes at each other from a distance.

In a separate video, a male holding a chair is seen trying to get between the duo.

The fighters then fled the scene and the respective groups drove away in a silver Honda and white Mazda before police arrived. There have been no arrests and no reported injuries.

A police spokeswoman confirmed that detectives were investigating a fight between two groups which started in a car park on Pascoe Vale Road.

In a post online, one woman who was locked inside a shop as the fight raged on said the “fear in the centre was real”.

“When it was finally safe to leave, all I could see were terrified faces, people crying, shaken and in shock,” she said on Instagram.

Shoppers sheltered in locked stores as the fighting went on in Broadmeadows.

The fight is the latest in a string of incidents at the shopping centre, after a 22-year-old was shot outside the building and taken to hospital with serious injuries on September 28.

A 26-year-old Roxburgh Park man and a 31-year-old Glenroy man were arrested in connection with the shooting, but no charges have been laid.

On September 24, two groups of men were filmed fighting in the Broadmeadows Central car park with machetes in broad daylight, and one man was taken to hospital, according to Seven News.

Victoria is grappling with its highest youth crime rate since electronic records began. The government fast-tracked laws banning machetes after an armed brawl between youth gangs at Northland Shopping Centre, in Preston, in May.