Woodgrove shopping centre, Melton: Families flee machete-wielding mob as brutal gang brawl breaks out at suburban shopping center in fresh outbreak of terrifying violence

Terrified mothers have been forced to flee a Melbourne shopping center with their children after a bloody brawl broke out between a group of machete-wielding men.

The group of men clashed inside the Woodgrove Shopping Center at Melton in Melbourne’s north-west about 5pm on Monday.

Witnesses claim the men, who they believe were teenagers, were armed with a variety of weapons and were seen brandishing knives and throwing chairs during the melee.

One woman said she fled the center with her children after seeing a man ‘waving a machete around’.

‘Kids fighting, throwing chairs around… Ran out with my kids and advised everyone going in to turn around,’ she wrote on social media.

During the attack, the teenagers were seen throwing chairs and brandishing machetes and large knives

The woman said she was ‘disgusted’ by the group’s actions, which came just days after six people were killed in a horror attack at Westfield Bondi Junction last Saturday.

“You’d think these morons would take a break after what happened in Bondi. I’m so disgusted I had to explain to my five year old why we had to run out of the shops,” she wrote.

“Woodgrove needs a police presence for all the hours it is open and these little crooks need tougher penalties. There is zero value to human life.’

Another shopper said she and her three children hid inside the baby changing rooms with other frightened mothers as the fight unfolded.

‘It was a machete that a teenager pulled out,’ she wrote on Facebook. ‘It happened right where the play area is in front of the parents/babies changing room.

‘My three children and I ran into the parents’ room with a group of mothers and small children. Sad that my six year old was so scared because he saw the machete.’

Another witness explained that people started ‘throwing things’ at one of the men after he entered the food court with a ‘big knife’.

Three of the men were seen leaving the mall covered in blood, with one holding a shirt to his head to cover a wound.

Witnesses claim that one of the teenagers left the center with a jumper held to his head and covered in blood

Terrified shoppers fled the center (pictured) while some hid inside shops as the melee unfolded

Victoria Police launched an investigation into the incident after a 15-year-old boy was found injured inside the complex before being taken to hospital.

Two boys, a 15-year-old from Melton South and a 16-year-old from Harkness, were arrested on Tuesday and are being questioned by police.

The 16-year-old has been charged with fraud, possession of prohibited weapons and armed with criminal intent. He is due in a children’s court on Tuesday afternoon.

Police will charge the 15-year-old with fraud, possession of controlled weapons and being armed with criminal intent and will then appear directly before a children’s court.

The boy, who remains in hospital, will be interviewed about the incident when he is released.

Police are urging anyone with information to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.

It comes after six innocent shoppers – including five women and one man – were fatally stabbed a horror attack at Westfield Bondi Junction around 3.20pm on Saturday.

The knifeman, Joel Cauchi, 40, was seen walking through the center with a 30cm hunting knife, stabbing shoppers at random.

Twelve others – including a nine-month-old baby – were seriously injured before NSW Police Inspector Amy Scott single-handedly confronted Cauchi and shot and killed him.