Shoppers and staff have been evacuated from a Melbourne shopping centre which has been put into lockdown after fight.
Two teenage boys have been charged over a suspected gang knife fight involving 10 people that sent a Melbourne shopping centre into lockdown and left three people in hospital.
A 16-year-old from the Darebin area and a 15-year-old from the Melton area were arrested yesterday afternoon following the fight at Northland Shopping Centre in Preston, which forced shoppers and staff to evacuate.
A 20-year-old was rushed to hospital with serious injuries but police later said he was in a stable condition, and two other injured males later brought themselves to hospital.
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Police early this morning said they'd charged the arrested teens with affray, intentionally causing injury, possessing a controlled weapon and using a controlled weapon.
They were remanded in custody to appear in a children's court.
Footage circulating online shows a male with a huge blade appearing to be facing off with two others inside Northland.
Police said it was a "frightening" situation for shoppers.
Some were seen carrying young children and running with prams.
One mother said what she saw was "terrifying" and another shopper said it was "just hectic" and "crazy".
"Everybody was running for their lives," one witness said.
Superintendent Kelly Lawson said two gangs had pre-arranged to meet at the centre this afternoon when it was busy with families.
"For (shoppers) to be exposed by this kind of behaviour by two rival gangs is pretty disgraceful to be honest," she said, before charges were laid.
"It's really frightening for members of the public to go through this."
She said police arrived to a "really chaotic scene" six minutes after getting the emergency calls.
Lawson said some people had started to run out of the shopping centre, and police evacuated the rest when they arrived.
A special operations group, tactical response team officers and dozens of police swarmed the shopping centre.
"For the people here today it would have been horrific," she said
Within minutes, one man had been brought down near an escalator, with a member of the public pinning him to the ground.
"There was just a man lying on the floor surrounded by cops with blood on the floor," one shopper told 9News.
Lawson said one machete had been found.
On top of those two already arrested, police were investigating the other eight youths, she said.
Footage shows shops with the shutters down as sirens sound.
One woman rang 3AW to report said she had been forced to shelter inside a shop with the lights off, before being told to "evacuate" the building.
"There were people screaming outside, people running," Lina told 3AW.
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"There was a lot of people running here and there going into stores."
"We knew nothing, we saw a lot of frightened people."
Other mobile videos show crowds of people leaving via stairwells, and a helicopter overhead.
Lawson reassured shoppers the centre was safe but added extra patrols would be arranged.
She said there are 40 youth gangs across Victoria, and said they were "doing all that we can to infiltrate into those gangs".