The Northern Territory Police Commissioner has activated a snap 72 hour curfew between the hours of 10am-6am, after what was described as a “horror” weekend in Alice Springs for both police and residents.
In a major development, the curfew applies to all persons – adults and children – and the declared area includes the confines between Anzac Hill, Schwarz Crescent, down to the hospital, from the Stuart Highway across to Leichhardt and Stott Terrace.
Anyone in that zone can be engaged by police and asked to leave, or they can be asked to stay if there’s another disturbance and they do need to be contained for their own safety.
Police Commissioner Michael Murphy made the announcement of a curfew from 10pm Monday at a press conference in the wake of four off duty police officers allegedly being assaulted and another officer being rushed to hospital after he was run over while attempting to make an arrest.
The officer suffered fractures to his leg and arm, and had to undergo surgery.
There was also large scale disturbance involving up to 80 people on the council lawns on Saturday evening, which became violent.
Mr Murphy said the group had been at two licensed premises earlier in the evening before crossing the road to the council lawns and engaging in disturbances and violent conduct, causing police to respond.
“They assaulted our police,” he said.
“Police had to use some force to disperse the crowd, they eventually did and wandered into the Todd River. That subsequently led to the assault of four off-duty police who were walking home.
“We cannot identify that they were known to the group as police, however it could have been any Alice Springs resident of Territorian that could have been violently assaulted and rocked.”
Herald Sun
