SDA Union, workers call for review into the response to Elizabeth Shopping Centre knife fight

Retail workers who helped shelter frightened customers as a bloody knife brawl unfolded in a northern suburbs mall say they are not impressed with the centre’s response.

The powerful SDA union is calling for a review into the response to the bloody knife brawl at Elizabeth Shopping Centre on Wednesday, which its secretary says created chaos and confusion for workers and shoppers.

A teenager was left fighting for life after the wild knife fight at the popular northern suburbs mall.

In a separate incident just hours later, a 34-year-old security guard was treated for a cut to his forearm after chasing alleged shoplifters to the nearby bus interchange.

A teenager was stabbed during a wild brawl in front of stunned customers at Elizabeth Shopping Centre. Picture: 7 NEWS

Three teenagers were charged after the incident. Picture: 7 NEWS

Union secretary Josh Peak slammed the centre management’s response in the wake of the back-to-back attacks, saying workers reported poor communication and feeling terrified as teenagers ran around the mall with knives.

“Feedback from our members has been that there was chaos and confusion that occurred both during the incident and then following it,” he said.

“I think it’s highlighted once again that we do need to have a more standardised and clear approach when it comes to handling incidents such as this at our major shopping centres.”

Workers told the union that centre management failed to notify staff of an emergency unfolding at the mall.

“I was one of the managers on and shut the shop as soon as a team member saw a teenager running past with a huge knife in his hand,” said a retail manager, who asked to remain anonymous.

“Customers were running into our store after seeing the incident. The centre had no alarm or anything to tells us a serious incident was occurring to prompt us to shut the shop and keep us all safe inside.”

She called for better procedures, a faster response and panic alarms to be installed in shops.

A retail worker told the union that he saw the people running through the mall with what looked like a machete and knives and did not feel safe at work.

“I personally alerted my line manager of a serious emergency taking place in the mall and got her to shut our store doors as fast as possible,” he said.

“We were reopened for trade roughly 20 minutes later after sheltering staff and customers in our store and then had to work the rest of our shift not knowing if we were safe for sure or not.

Elizabeth City Centre shopping centre. Picture: Supplied

“It was a traumatic experience for a lot of people. Considering the events we’ve seen interstate I honestly cannot believe the mall was not shut down and evacuated the moment the fight escalated to extreme violence with deadly weapons.”

A staff member from another store, who was working when the brawl broke out on Wednesday afternoon, said he locked down the shop for around 10 minutes after he heard the fighting and saw a teenager run past.

He said centre management did not order a lockdown.

Mr Peak said a number of stores close to the incident undertook their own lockdowns.

He said the union would be calling on major shopping centres to do a thorough review of whether they have adequate security guard staffing as well as a review of the incident.

“We are going to be calling for a review by SafeWork SA into the incident,” he said.

“We do think SafeWork SA really do need to investigate whether all appropriate steps were taken yesterday by Vicinity … to keep workers and customers safe,” he said.

The Advertiser has contacted centre owners Vicinity and SafeWork SA for comment.

Three teenagers were arrested and charged following the knife fight, including a 14-year-old from Elizabeth Vale, a 16-year-old from Brahma Lodge and a 17-year-old from Salisbury East.

Just hours later, police were called to the nearby Elizabeth Interchange following reports a security guard had been stabbed.