Police fire pepper balls, pellets as Oz protesters defy curbs

Sydney/Melbourne, September 21

The police in Melbourne fired pepper balls and rubber pellets on Tuesday to disperse about 2,000 protesters who defied stay-at-home orders to damage property, block a busy freeway and injure three officers, leading to more than 60 arrests.

It was the second day of demonstrations in the locked-down Australian city after authorities shut construction sites for two weeks, saying workers’ frequent movement was spreading Covid.

During eight hours of downtown protests, demonstrators threw rocks, bottles and flares at the police, as television and social media showed video of protesters chanting and attacking police cars, surrounded by mounted police and officers in riot gear.

Shane Patton, police commissioner in the southeastern state of Victoria, said the protest breached Covid-19 lockdown rules.

Australia has locked down its largest cities of Sydney and Melbourne, as well as capital Canberra to rein in an outbreak of the highly infectious Delta variant.

But the tough curbs have triggered anti-lockdown rallies, with the police arresting hundreds in both cities over the weekend. Reuters