Members of the Punjabi community clashed with one another during a sporting event in Victoria’s Shepparton on Sunday.
Eyewitnesses told News that dozens of participants attacked one another with knives, tree branches and other weapons.
Thousands of members of Australia’s Punjabi community had thronged Shepparton for the annual Punjab Sports Tournament. But because of a handful of them, the tournament was reduced to a “big riot”.
Brendon Lavery was just across the road from the venue of the tournament when the brawl broke out on Sunday afternoon.
“It was like a big sort of riot,” he told Shepparton News.
He added that people were attacking one another with whatever they could find.
“There were bats, knives, they were snapping off branches of the trees. I put my kids inside and shut the door. It was a crappy thing to see,” Shepparton Times quoted him as saying.
A member of the organising committee who did not wish to be identified told SBS Punjabi that the mayhem started when players from two Kabaddi teams clashed in the car park of the venue.
He said the entire community in Shepparton was in a state of shock due to this "ugly" incident.
"We are now facing a difficult situation here. Families are in shock, children are still scared because of what happened," he said.
He added the council has threatened to slap the organisers with a fine for the damage to the venue during the fight.
He further said he knew the parties involved in the clash and the organisers will file a police complaint against them.
Another member of the organising committee, Nav Gill, refuted the eyewitness account that claimed it was a "bit riot".
Mr. Gill told SBS Punjabi that it was a fight between "three to four guys". He also denied that there were any weapons used in the fight.
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