Melbourne:
Several police officers have been wounded and hundreds of protesters have been arrested in Australia’s second-most-populous city Saturday in violent clashes at an anti-lockdown march.
Officers applied pepper spray and made more than 200 arrests in Melbourne as a number of hundred attendees violated remain-at-home orders and marched by way of an inner-city suburb.
The illegal gathering comes as the city goes by way of its sixth lockdown given that the pandemic began, with the wider state of Victoria reporting more than 500 instances of Covid-19 on Saturday.
Police mentioned six officers have been taken to hospital following they have been pelted with projectiles and trampled in clashes with the crowd of about 700 individuals.
“What we saw today was a group of protesters that came together, not to protest freedoms, but simply to take on and have a fight with the police,” Victoria Police Commander Mark Galliott told media.
Police attempted to cut down access to the centre of the city, blocking roads and stopping public transport in a bid to stay away from a repeat of violent scenes at a rally that drew thousands last month.
But marchers then relocated, with footage from one incident displaying a crowd charging by way of a police line as scuffles erupted along a tram route.
Huge numbers of police managed to deter a equivalent gathering in Sydney, with officers swarming a park exactly where the protest had been due to go ahead.
New South Wales Police mentioned they arrested about 20 individuals in the city, primarily across the public transport network, though a number of other folks have been arrested in smaller sized gatherings about the state.
Both cities are enduring lengthy lockdowns as authorities race to vaccinate a way out of restrictions amid increasing outbreaks.
Australia effectively pursued “Covid-zero” for most of the pandemic, enabled primarily by closed international borders and restrictions on movements.
But the arrival of the Delta variant plunged its two biggest cities back beneath remain-at-home orders earlier this year, and authorities are now aiming for a 70 % vaccination price ahead of additional easing lockdowns.
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