Terrifying moment customer is caught up in machete attack at Melbourne shopping centre as stores plunged into lockdown
A woman filmed the moment a Kmart locked customers inside its store to save customers from a machete attack.
A group of five to six teenage boys, armed with machetes, were seen fighting in Caroline Springs Shopping Centre, in Melbourne 's west, about 6.40pm on Friday.
A Victoria Police spokesperson told Daily Mail Australia the boys had fled by the time officers arrived at the scene.
CCTV footage showed shoppers and retailers as they scrambled to avoid the armed group.
Ari was shopping in Kmart when the attack unfolded.
'We're going into lockdown because someone has a machete,' she told viewers as other customers screamed in the background.
Several customers were confused as Kmart locked its doors, fearing one of the machete-wielders was inside the store.
An employee explained to Ari the attack had happened '10, 20 minutes ago' and Kmart had been cleared but 'security wants the whole shopping centre shut down'.
Kmart workers urged customers to stay inside the locked store but some still chose to duck under the roller shutter.
Daily Mail Australia has contacted Kmart for further comment.
Several other shoppers affected by the lockdown shared news of the incident as it unfolded.
Pictured is an outtake from CCTV footage obtained by Nine News depicting a young male believed to have been involved in the incident on Friday night
'Another machete attack while I was getting my noodle on,' one TikTok user wrote in a video filmed inside the shopping centre as the lockdown announcement played over the loudspeakers.
While no injuries were reported, the incident called into question the effectiveness of a ban on the sale of machetes by the Victorian government.
The ban followed a clash between suspected rival youth gangs alleged to have been carrying the weapons at Northland shopping centre in Preston on May 25.
Footage from inside the popular mall depicted shoppers running for cover as a group of seven males, aged between 15 and 21, squared-off.
The following day Premier Jacinta Allan announced her government would bring forward the machete ban until a permanent ban takes effect on September 1.
'In Victoria, community safety comes first. We must never let places we meet become places we fear,' Ms Allan said last Monday.
'I hate these knives, and I will keep introducing as many laws as it takes to get them off our streets, out of our shops and out of our lives.'
Investigations into the Caroline Springs incident remain ongoing.
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