SYDNEY – Two teenagers have been hospitalized after being stabbed during New Year’s Eve celebrations in Sydney and Melbourne.
Police in Sydney said today that officers were called to a park in the suburb of Guildford, 20 km west of central Sydney, at 10:40 p.m. local time last night following reports of a stabbing.
Officers attending the scene were told that a group of males were allegedly illegally setting off fireworks in the park before a 17-year-old was stabbed in the back.
Ambulance crews treated the boy at the scene before being taken to a nearby hospital in a serious but stable condition, police said.
His alleged attacker fled the scene.
Police made 36 arrests across Sydney’s central business district as over one million people flocked to the city for New Year’s Eve celebrations.
The arrests were made for various offenses, including assault, robbery, and possession of weapons.
Over 200,000 people rushed to vantage points on the Sydney Harbour last night to watch the city’s iconic fireworks display.
“Police were kept busy by a handful of revelers doing the wrong thing, but those people were dealt with quickly,” the assistant police commissioner, Peter McKenna, said in a statement.
In Melbourne, police responded to 52 reported assaults and arrested 14 people for possessing weapons.
A teenager was stabbed in the seaside suburb of Blairgowrie at about 5:45 p.m. and was transported to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. Police arrested two teenagers over the attack.
Illegal fireworks ignited several small fires across the city, but police said that there had been no injuries reported.– NNN-AAP