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'Peace' meeting ends in axe fight
Tuesday, December 5, 2006
The two families gathered together on the remote island of Groote Eylandt to work through their issues. They said that they wanted to resolve a long-standing inter-family feud calmly and peacefully.
That didn't go exactly to plan.
A short time later, a mass battle had broken out , as around 200 people attacked each other with spears, axes and homemade swords.
Things started to go a little off-script when one of the two families – in the mining town of Alyangula, on the island off Australia's Northern Territory – started to shout abuse and taunt the other family.
The other family, according to police, weren't prepared to take that, and responded with much fighting.
According to authorities: 'The situation escalated with police frantically trying to disarm young men of axes, spears and homemade swords.'
The fighting continued all night, between the families, causing an estimated $20,000 (just under £8,000) worth of damage to property, with 11 people arrested.
At the time of writing, it is not believed that the two families have managed to resolve their differences peacefully.
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