Weapon-wielding youths yesterday descended on a Melbourne train station with baseball bats looking for another group of young men — who they accused of carrying out a shocking bashing and robbery.

And a furious father has lashed out at police officers — who he claims were helpless to save his teenage son and his mate being bashed and robbed by a group of up to 30 youths as they walked home from the cinema on Sunday night.

Anthony Ferrari took to Facebook to vent, saying his 14-year-old son Xavier had been set upon by the large group — who he describes as being of African appearance — at Wyndham Vale train station.

“There’s a lot of tension.”



Caucasian youths with baseball bats cornered an African man they said had assaulted and robbed their friend, at Wyndham Vale train station yesterday.



FULL STORY: https://t.co/nLdyZ4nPgz pic.twitter.com/8K8Tpmbar2 — Herald Sun (@theheraldsun) January 28, 2019

In the post, he wrote that his son was pushed to the ground and the group then stole his iPhone and necklace before bashing the teenager and his mate.

Mr Ferrari said two Protective Services Officers (PSOs) were nearby, but “just watched”.

He told 3AW he spoke to the PSOs who told him they were powerless to act.

He said: “I spoke to the PSO officers on the phone and I asked them why didn’t they do anything. The PSO officers turned around and said, ‘You have to understand there was only two of us and about 20 or so of them.’”

However, yesterday — at the same train station where Sunday’s incident allegedly took place — there was an ugly stand-off between groups of young people.

TheHerald Sun witnessed the incident first-hand, reporting that caucasian youths with baseball bats were looking for African-Australians who they blamed for the alleged robbery — and they cornered one young man who denied any involvement.

Following a tense stand-off, the African-Australian’s friends reportedly came to his rescue and led him away as the caucasians pulled out their bats.

Transit Inspector Andrew Gustke, said it wasn’t true that PSOs failed to intervene on Sunday night — adding that officers had only just been approached by the first victim when they became aware that his friend was being attacked nearby.

He told The Age two officers had been patrolling the below-ground train station when commuters alerted them to the alleged assault happening a few hundred metres away.

By the time they got there, the group of youths “scattered”.

“The PSOs have done a fantastic job here; they’ve done exactly what they should do,” Inspector Gustke said. “Whilst talking to this first victim it’s our understanding that the second robbery was taking place.”

Mr Ferrari earlier told 3AW that the 30 or so youths on Sunday surrounded his son and his friend at the station before taking a number of items — including a necklace he had just been given for his birthday.

“They took his phone off him, they searched his pockets and found his Apple AirPods and took them,” he said. “Then they made him unclip his necklace.

“They then made him access his Apple ID on the phone to disable his Apple ID, and then made his disable his face recognition and fingerprint ID on the iPhone.”