Australia's Northern Territory (NT) imposed a two-week 12-hour youth curfew in the tourist town of Alice Springs beginning at 18:00 Wednesday night, local time (08:30 UTC, March 27) in response to a mass pub brawl on Tuesday (Mar. 26) that involved 150 people, many of them armed with weapons.
NT Chief Minister Eva Lawler announced that the curfew would be from 18:00 to 06:00 local time, where young people aged under 18 who are walking alone or without any adult companion within the Alice Springs CBD would not be allowed outside and would picked up by police and "taken home or taken to a safe place" if caught.
"The community [has] had enough, and so have I," she told a press conference Wednesday afternoon.
"We want people in Alice Springs to be able to walk down the street, feel safe, be able to go to the shopping center, pick up their kids from school and not be concerned about their own safety."
NT Police Commissioner Michael Murphy added that some of the violence was related to the death of an 18-year-old man in a vehicle rollover earlier this month, which culminated in Tuesday's pub brawl.
Police made five arrests and seized 50 weapons from those involved.
"That's led to family feuds and that's what erupted in Alice Springs yesterday, in a couple of locations," he added.
"The operation will be swift. We'll identify who's responsible and they'll be delivered to the court where they can answer for their behaviors."
The ABC reported that the string of riots in Alice Springs has triggered calls for a federal response to crime in the town, with some local and federal politicians saying drastic action needed to be taken to address the town's issues.
Alice Springs, a remote town considered the central point of Australia's Outback region, is the gateway to major tourist attractions, including the giant red sandstone monolith of Uluru.
A fifth of the 26,000 residents of Alice Springs are Indigenous Australians, who have been historically marginalized since the island continent was colonized by Great Britain in 1788.
The government has for years curbed alcohol sales in the town in a bid to reduce rampant violence and sexual abuse, Reuters reported.
