Police were pelted with bottles and cans as they tried to break up a huge car meet in Docklands where hooning drivers did burnouts and raced through the streets.
On Friday, June 2, car enthusiasts from Northeast Meets and Cruises took over an entire multi-storey car park on Waterfront Way, next to the Melbourne Star Observation Wheel, for a high-performance car show.
Although organisers banned alcohol and hooning, and say they informed police in advance of the "Holden vs Ford vs JDM vs Euro Car Mega Meet", the night quickly got out of hand, according to witnesses.
Fairfax has been told there were large traffic jams in Docklands as attendees arrived. It took more than an hour for many of the cars to exit when police finally shut down the event.
Footage uploaded to social media shows cars speeding out of the car park and racing away. There are also images of drivers using local roads and nearby carparks as racetracks, as onlookers cheer.
Attendees packed the car-park's multiple balconies and stood along Waterfront Way to film vehicles doing burnouts.
Witnesses told Fairfax the hoons had been racing in the area for about an hour before police turned up. When they arrived, at about 10pm, they found an unruly mob and about 1000 vehicles.
Police impounded one car after spotting it doing burnouts on Little Docklands Drive before shutting down the entire event.
"Police impounded a vehicle after it was seen doing a burnout on Little Docklands Drive. At this point a small group of attendees threw bottles and cans toward police," a police spokeswoman told Fairfax.
No additional arrests were made, she said.
A spokesman for Northside Meets and Cruises said about 25 people were involved in hooning.
"It's the small group who go around and try to destroy these meets doing burnouts and targeting police," the spokesman said.
"Not everyone is a dickhead. We have always done the right thing and at the end of the day it is us that suffer by trying to do the right thing for the people who actually care."
The event was run by Harbour Town, with attendees charged $7 for entry into the carpark. Other tenants at the facility are understood to be less than impressed at the way the event was managed.
"Whilst there were one or two incidents which were dealt with by police, the vast majority of attendees were well behaved and respectful of the venue and surrounds," Harbour Town's general manager Stephen Beaumont told Fairfax.