There have been reports of police deploying pepper spray on protestors as March for Australia demonstrations and counter-protests take place across the nation’s capital cities.
Per 7News, the pepper spray incident took place in Melbourne, where crowds of anti-immigration protestors gathered at the intersection of Bourke and Swanston streets in the city’s CBD.
The March for Australia demonstrators were reportedly met by scores of counter-protestors from the pro-Palestine movement as the former group made their way to Parliament House in East Melbourne.
According to reports, tensions are high among the competing protestor groups, with multiple altercations breaking out on the streets of Melbourne between the participants.
7News reports that during one altercation, police deployed pepper spray on protestors who were brawling, while another incident left a woman injured after she fell to the footpath in a tussle between the two groups.
Around a dozen protestors were pepper-sprayed during the Melbourne march, as police were forced to block the opposing groups via a barricade on Swanston Street near Flinders Street Station.
It’s thought the two groups converged when March for Australia demonstrators, en route to Parliament House, coincided with pro-Palestine groups participating in their weekly protest on the corner of Bourke and Exhibition streets.
Also in Melbourne, one protestor was spotted holding a small crocodile, per 7News.
The Melbourne protest is one of multiple currently taking place across the country, with Sydney’s March for Australia beginning at Belmore Park earlier today.
Meanwhile, Brisbane’s anti-immigration march was reportedly met with large numbers of counter-protestors, some of whom held pro-immigration signs and waved Aboriginal flags.
Pauline Hanson gave an address at the anti-immigration march in Canberra, while Bob Katter appeared at a protest in Townsville.
The marches were controversial from the start, given the campaign’s association with far-right online accounts and its prominence among nationalist and white advocacy groups.
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