A fight involving dozens of Sudanese-Australian youths from Melbourne's southern and northern suburbs that forced local residents to shelter indoors was caused by a dispute about "a couple of girlfriends", police have said.

Key points: Police said they were "well-prepared" for the planned fight between two groups

Police said they were "well-prepared" for the planned fight between two groups Police Minister Lisa Neville says the incident was "completely unacceptable"

Police Minister Lisa Neville says the incident was "completely unacceptable" Residents say police told them to stay inside their homes and lock their doors

Police said two groups of youths arranged via social media to "to have a fight" at Watergardens Shopping Centre, in Melbourne's north-west, about 5:30pm on Wednesday.

Video shared on social media appeared to show two females pushing and shoving each other, before falling to the ground and wrestling as people watched on.

Commander Tim Hansen from Victoria Police said officers were "well prepared" for the altercation and broke the groups up, but the youths then boarded public buses and met up at a park in Taylors Hill.

Riot police and the air wing was brought in to deal with the altercation.

Rocks were thrown and a police vehicle was damaged, but no-one was injured, Commander Hansen said.

The groups of youths moved to a park in Taylors Hill after meeting up at a shopping centre. ( ABC News: James Hancock )

Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton told ABC Radio Melbourne the dispute revolved around "a couple of girlfriends".

"[They were] having a bit of a clash there. I think it was over a couple of girlfriends or something like that," he said.

"It's just the case of two groups coming together to want to fight about it."

Local resident Jeb said police told them to go inside and stay there.

"[There was] a whole bunch of African youths running around," he said.

"I'd say they were being a bit abusive in terms of … they were sledging the coppers and the police were clearly outnumbered. That was pretty clear.

"There were a lot of females and they were being most vocal just swearing, and carrying on.

"Yeah it was pretty intense. We got told by police to go inside and lock our doors."

Another resident, Mil, said he was not scared, but wondering what was going on.

"I saw a lot of people running around throwing rocks and causing havoc," he told the ABC.

"They met at Coles and I saw the police patrolling the area. They've done a very good job of protecting the people."

Police said the youths who gathered at the shopping centre — about 50 in total —were in their late teenage years and were from the Melton and Pakenham areas.

Police 'always in control'

Commander Hansen said there was a "strong" police presence and they were "engaging with and monitoring" the youths.

"I want to reassure the public, we never lost control of this incident," he said.

"We were always in control.

"We had a measured, balanced, set of tactics that we were deploying."

He said detectives from Operation Wayward — a taskforce set up 12 months ago to investigate crimes against the community in the western suburbs — were leading the investigation.

He said three people at the scene had been identified as "ongoing persons of interest" who the taskforce had been monitoring for some time.

He said arrests could be made, and charges laid, later today.

"It could be anything from an affray, through to criminal damage through to riotous behaviour would be the sort of type of offences we'd be considering," he said.

Achol Marial said the South Sudanese community would speak to the girls involved. ( ABC News )

Incident not gang-related, community says

Achol Marial, the secretary of youth affairs for the South Sudanese Community Association in Victoria, said the incident was disappointing but was not gang-related.

"It was just immature young people having a misunderstanding and it led to a fight," she said.

"It's been spread around, which has caused others that were not involved in the fight to come and witness it.

"We are disappointed … about what happened. We will do the best that we can to get those particular young girls on board and just advise them a little bit on how to behave.

"We will speak to their parents to keep an eye on them. I think parents need to be more aware of what their children may be up to."

Premier 'won't accept there's a problem': Dutton

While police were adamant they had the situation under control, Federal Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton again weighed into the issue.

He has previously said Melburnians were afraid to go out at night because of gang violence, and today took aim Premier Daniel Andrews' handling of the issue.

Mr Dutton expressed fears the situation could escalate.

"In 2018, having people riot like this, as you say, like a scene from some other part of the world is unacceptable," he said on Sydney radio station 2GB.

"Daniel Andrews won't even accept that there's a problem, that these gangs exist, which is just not credible.

"He needs to, I think, come out and start sorting this out because at the moment people are getting hurt and somebody's going to be killed."

Disorder 'completely unacceptable', Government says

Police Minister Lisa Neville called the incident appalling.

"[It's] just completely unacceptable … trying to cause public disorder and fear is just unacceptable," she said.

"They clearly were out there just being a nuisance trying to cause a level of fear for the community and then they started to attack the police as they were being dispersed."

She said the police response was appropriate and properly resourced.

Opposition spokesman Ed O'Donohue said the incident was "very concerning".

"Yet again we have a serious issues with young people, with gang violence and youth violence and you've got to ask yourselves what did the Andrews Government is doing to fix this problem," he said.

"Clearly we need new strategies and new ways to tackle this problem because it's simply not going away and it's only getting worse."

Mr O'Donohue said the Government needed a suite of policies and deterrence "so there are some consequences for the types of criminal behaviour that leaves Victorians afraid in their own homes".