SYDNEY (Reuters) – Anti-war groups protested outside a defence exhibition in Australia’s second-largest city of Melbourne for a second day on Thursday, after violent clashes between police and protesters on Wednesday injured several officers.
Protesters marched through the city’s streets as police set up new barricades to block the crowd entering the roads near the venue hosting the biennial Land Forces International Land Defence Exposition.
Riot squad officers and specialist personnel have been deployed in what police said is the largest security operation in Melbourne since the World Economic Forum in 2000. Hundreds of police officers in other parts of the state of Victoria have been dispatched to Melbourne.
Dozens were arrested on Wednesday as police used sponge grenades, flash-bang devices and irritant sprays to control parts of the hostile crowd, some of whom threw rocks, horse manure and bottles at police officers and horses.
About 1,500 people protested outside the venue on Wednesday with many chanting pro-Palestine slogans through loudspeakers and waving Palestine flags, while others had signs and flags representing other conflicts and causes.
A total of 22 people were charged and 10 were issued infringement notices, Victoria state police said. Twenty-seven police officers required medical treatment.
Protesters alleged police used rubber bullets and other weapons that they said should be banned for use on demonstrators, including pepper spray.
The violence during the protests, led by a group calling itself ‘Disrupt Land Forces’, drew strong rebukes from the major political parties though the minor left-wing Greens has called for an independent inquiry into the police actions.
About 1,000 exhibiting organisations from 31 countries are expected to attend the event, which the organisers said was Australia’s largest defence expo. The three-day event concludes on Friday.
(Reporting by Renju Jose in Sydney; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)