Anti-lockdown protest in Melbourne CBD
Hundreds of rowdy protesters have rallied in Melbourne's CBD just hours after Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews declared the state's sixth coronavirus lockdown.
The protesters, some carrying placards and most not wearing masks, gathered at Flinders Street around 7pm and moved into Swanston Street as police in masks gathered to try to disperse them.
Flares were lit and the crowd chanted "no more lockdowns", the Herald Sun reported, while residents of nearby apartments shouted "Go home idiots".
Video on Twitter feeds showed police on foot and horseback fronting the crowd, and a line of officers shoulder to shoulder on the steps of Flinders Street Station.
One video showed two officers using handheld devices to spray protesters with what may have been pepper spray.
One protester shouted "COVID is fake" and another said he was angered by Victoria's sixth lockdown.
"We can't keep going through this, we are losing our livelihoods," the man from Melbourne's southeast told the Herald Sun.
At least one arrest was made.
The seven-day lockdown announced by Mr Andrews began at 8pm on Thursday after the state recorded eight new cases of the Delta variant of the coronavirus.
Mr Andrews said the decision to lock down was "incredibly painful" but there was no alternative and he was determined to avoid an extended lockdown..
"The alternative is not to be locked down for seven days, it's being locked down for seven weeks or more, locked down until we get to 80 per cent vaccination and that may not happen until Christmas time," he said.
"We have been through a three-month lockdown. That was 2020, we don't want that again."
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