Victorian Premier Jacinta Allan has announced a snap ban on the sale of dangerous blades across the state after Sunday’s violent brawl that forced the lockdown of a busy shopping centre.

Shoppers were left terrified by the violent melee between rival gang members armed with machetes in a food court at Northland Shopping Centre in Melbourne’s north on Sunday afternoon.

Video circulating online shows terrified shoppers fleeing through the shopping centre, while others cowered behind counters and in shop storage rooms.

“I just see people rushing into my store, telling me to lock the doors,” Vea Chainet told the ABC.

She was working at a shop near the entrance of the centre when people started rushing into her store.

“I’m pretty shaken, [it was] scary,” she said.

Another woman wrote on X later on Sunday that she’d just returned home after being caught in the mayhem.

“Was locked in a store room in Myer, staff were fantastic. Still shaken. Hope injured will be OK,” she wrote.

Two boys, aged 15 and 16, have been charged while another man, 20, was rushed to hospital following the altercation.

On Monday, Allan announced the laws, which ban the sale of machetes across Victoria, would take effect from noon on May 28.

“In Victoria, community safety comes first. We must never let places we meet become places we fear,” she said.

“I hate these knives, and I will keep introducing as many laws as it takes to get them off our streets, out of our shops and out of our lives.”

The interim sale ban will cover machetes, which are broadly described as a cutting-edge knife with a blade of more than 20 centimetres.

The purpose of the statewide interim sale ban is to stop supply of the blades, before a possession ban comes into effect on September 1.

“We can do this now. We can move to bring about this ban on the sale of machetes as we move quickly and safely with Victoria Police on bringing about that Australian-first machete ban,” Allan said.

She defended the decision not to bring forward a ban on possessing the blades.

Allan said it was based on advice from Victoria Police and agencies in March amid safety concerns. She  pointed out it took 18 months for Britain to implement its machete ban.

Last week’s state budget earmarked $13 million to roll out the Victorian ban, including for locked disposal boxes at 40 24-hour police stations.

The laws were rushed initially through parliament after Crime Statistics Agency figures showed children aged 10-17 had committed 24,550 offences in Victoria in 2024, the highest number since electronic records started being collected in 1993.

They were expected to take effect from September 1, giving police time to prepare for the changes, according to Allan.

The laws include expanded police search powers for weapons.

There were about 18 aggravated burglaries on average each day across the state in 2024 and car thefts spiked by 41.2 per cent to their highest level since 2002.

Harsher bail laws to respond to surging youth crime, aggravated burglaries and car thefts came into effect in April after being rushed through Victorian parliament by the Allan Labor government.

The teenagers involved in Sunday’s brawl were charged with affray, intentionally cause injury, possess controlled weapon and use controlled weapon, and they have been remanded to appear in a children’s court at a later date.

Superintendent Kelly Lawson confirmed the attack was not random. Rival gangs had arranged a meeting at the centre’s food court before the fight erupted, she said.

“It is said to have been an act of retaliation,” she said outside the shopping centre on Sunday.

Police believe about 10 people were involved, some armed with knives.

There were no firearms involved.

“It was a chaotic scene,” Lawson said.

“It’s really frightening for members of the public to go through this.”

The centre was locked down during the incident as dozens of police officers responded and shoppers shared updates on social media.

The man taken to hospital is in a stable condition.

Two other males have since self-presented to hospital with injuries.

-with AAP