"We had a group of about 20 or 30, it was kids from our Australian Sudanese (community) coming from the southern suburbs to meet up with kids from the northern suburbs to have a bit of clash there ... about girlfriends or something like that," he said. He said police used crowd control equipment to move on the youths — which could include throwing out smoke or loud noise – and there were a large number of spectators. "They are groups of kids coming together. You can call them gangs ... But if you think of them as gangs it's not the way we tend to respond to them as they don't have the traditional thing that we think groups have," he said. "These are groups that use social media." The playground in Bronte Way, Taylors Hill, where youths gathered on Wednesday night. Credit:Eddie Jim No one was arrested during the incident, however Mr Ashton expected some arrests would be made on Thursday.

Melbourne CBD and West Divisions Commander Tim Hansen said some of the youths were known to police and that two groups had initially gathered to fight at Watergardens Shopping Centre before moving on to Taylors Hill. It is believed up to 40 young people gathered at the centre.

"We had local police on the ground pretty quickly. Once we started to engage with these kids it looked like two groups have come together, there's a bit of pre-existing tension between the two groups and they had agreed to meet up there to have a fight," he told radio station 3AW. "We take a zero tolerance approach to this behaviour and we're really disappointed with it." "There is a cohort within that larger group that are known to us so we'll be moving through the western suburbs today at different times speaking to people," he said.

Premier Daniel Andrews said police responded with force, quickly and appropriately. But he said the incident would have been very distressing for residents. Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video "They can be assured we will continue to provide Victoria Police with every single thing they need in order to fight crime and make the community safer," he said. 'It was terrifying' Residents have revealed their fear as they were told to stay inside, lock their doors and park their cars off the road and in garages.

Rocchina, whose home overlooks the park, said at 7pm her family became increasingly concerned as police arrived and surrounded the neighbourhood. “When we built here in 2009 there was none of this trouble. We even paid more to build opposite the park for our kids,” she said “We get teens here playing basketball sometimes but nothing like last night. “They came to fight.” The mother of two said she could hear one group chanting in a foreign language but couldn’t make out most of the yelling.

Some still had their school uniforms and backpacks on, she said. “There was so many you couldn’t even see the basketball court. And others, about six, they were standing on top of the electricity box,” she said. “It was terrifying, we were worried for our kids. “They were out in packs.” One resident of Bronte Way said more than 100 Sudanese youths had been across the road in the park and basketball court complex.

He said police were roaming the area and a helicopter was flying overhead when he came home as well as officers from the special operations group. "This has happened multiple times... but it hasn't happened for a good four or five months," he said. With several small children at home, the man - who spoke to The Age through the glass of his front door - said he was extremely concerned for his safety and was considering moving. "That's the reason we have roller shutters now. I'm not opening the door. I was told by police to get inside before." Riot gear 'not over the top'

Police said they were making ongoing efforts to address community concerns about safety in the western suburbs. They said the Operations Response Unit and Public Order Response Team were called to "ensure public safety" and the group dispersed not long after they arrived. Apart from damage to the police car there were no further issues, no injuries and no further threat to community safety. Commander Hansen said no arrests had been made at the time as the short-term objective was "to make residents safe". He said the use of riot gear was a "dispersal tactic". Police minister Lisa Neville said the police response was "not over the top at all".

"The Public Order Response Team with all their gear we've funded went in and sent a strong message and dispersed them with no injuries and no damage other than to the police car so I want to thank them for their work," she said. She said the behaviour of the youths was "appalling". "This sort of random trying to cause public disorder and fear is unacceptable." Community working on the problem Ahmed Hassan, of not-for-profit group Youth Activating Youth, said the African Australian community is working on issues with its at-risk youth.

"We are deeply concerned," he said. "We do acknowledge there is a problem within the community when it comes to different issues with young people; those concerns are real and we're addressing them." "A lot of young people are not occupied, not attending school or employment or engaged with sports or the arts. "We are dealing with the underlying issues through family support and trying to give them greater resources." He said the offenders were a "concentrated cohort" who were "minimal in the community". South Sudanese community representative Maker Mayek said the incident occurred after the fight was flagged in a Facebook post.

"It's not the African community, it's not the Africans in general, these are young people from the South Sudanese community, and we want to make it clear no one condones their actions," he told Nine News. "It was a very, very unfortunate situation and it's one that we as members of the community really do denounce." Residents worry of 'overreaction' Serah Polito, a resident from nearby Hillside, said she understood the terror being felt by people who had experienced violence first hand. However, she believed community fear had been heightened by some locals, who hadn’t been personally affected, but“jumped on the bandwagon” to speak out because of concerns due to skin colour.

“There is a problem with gangs,” Ms Polito said. "[But] are people just overreacting because a group of black kids are congregating in a park? I don’t know.” Ms Polito, who had her home robbed recently by white teenagers, said locals had begun fearing violence every time they saw a group of African-Australian teenagers. “I don’t have that fear that a lot of people have in our area where people see a black person and are scared they are going to rob their house or steal their car,” she said. “If there is a group of random white kids in a park, they don’t blink an eye.

“If they see black kids, they assume it’s a gang and call the police.” Another Hillside resident found news of the planned fight at Kirribilli Park terrifying. “I didn’t sleep. No one slept,” she said. She lived in fear hearing about the issue in her neighbourhood through Facebook and the news. Jo, who didn’t want her surname published, said now when seeing African-Australian teenagers at Watergardens Shopping Centre, her children asked if she could park somewhere else.

“They have never witnessed any crimes that have happened, but they have seen gangs of [African- Australian] youths wandering around,” she said. “They’re scared.” A third Hillside resident, who didn’t want to be named, said she would be frightened if she lived closer to Kirribilli Park, but that she didn’t fear becoming a victim. She said the African-Australian teens she’d seen at Watergardens kept to themselves. “I’ve never seen any bad behaviour,” she said. “I’ve never had an issue.” Law and order and the election

Law and order will be major themes in the election campaigns of both the state government and opposition as the November poll nears. Victorian Opposition Leader Matthew Guy tweeted media coverage of the situation with the comments "Melbourne in 2018" and "Melbourne under Daniel Andrews". "Victoria deserves better than this law and order crisis. Only a change of government will make Victoria safe again," he wrote. Shadow corrections and community safety minister Edward O'Donohue tweeted: "Victorians continue to live in fear while Daniel Andrews is in denial that gang crime exists." Anyone with information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.