Westfield Marion is facing criticism staff overreacted when Adelaide’s largest shopping centre went into lockdown amid a brawl involving allegedly armed teens.
The shopping centre in Adelaide’s south was locked down at 3pm on Sunday following reports two groups of youths, some of them allegedly armed, were fighting in the food court.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: What led to a major Adelaide shopping centre being locked down.
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Two 15-year-olds and a 16-year-old have been charged with assault, affray and aggravated robbery over the incident.
It’s been alleged a teen brandished a machete and batons during a fight over a Trapstar jumper, compelling Westfield staff to raise the alarm.
The centre warned shoppers to run and hide via electronic signs and an evacuation alert broadcast through a speaker system.
But some have now said the lockdown was an overreaction.
SA Opposition Leader David Speirs questioned if the shopping centre’s alerts and signage added unnecessarily to the panic.
The centre had practised an emergency response only a week before to prepare it for incidents such as the mass stabbing murders at Westfield Bondi Junction, where a man was shot dead after killing six people.
Ayla Pope, 8, didn’t go to school on Monday because she was left traumatised by the emergency warnings.
“I was thinking that we would never get out of there and they were coming to actually coming to attack people,” Ayla said.
Her father, Adam Pope said he was left speechless when Ayla asked him: “Dad, is this like Bondi again?”
However, other shoppers praised the shopping centre’s staff for doing the best they could with the information given to them.
Among those was mother Emily Burns, who was separated from her daughter as the emergency warnings were played.
“My 11-year-old (was) calling me saying, ‘Mum, where are you? I love you. Are you OK?’ It was pretty terrifying,” Burns said.
“We don’t know what those kids were capable of,” she said in defence of the centre’s staff.
SA Police Assistant Commissioner Scott Duval said the responses of police and the shopping centre would be reviewed, but he was comfortable with the actions taken.
Premier Peter Malinauskas said police and centre were doing the best they could in response to misinformation spread in a short period of time.
“I think it was easy to say with hindsight it was an overreaction … but they’ve got to act on the side of caution as well,” Malinauskas said.
“There was rapid public messaging happening within Westfield shopping centre — there’s a question whether or not that messaging reflected what was actually happening.”
A defence lawyer for the 16-year-old told a youth court it wasn’t her client’s intention for the situation to escalate as it did.
The lawyer said it was Westfield’s response that installed fear in shoppers, not her client’s alleged actions.
The court heard two of the boys had extensive criminal history and one was under state care.
The three youths from Adelaide’s south have been remanded in custody pending a home detention report for two of them.