Man arrested with machete outside Lara Secondary College

A 24-year-old man has been arrested with a machete in an incident that forced nearby schools to take emergency action.

File picture of Lara Secondary College.

A man who police say was carrying a machete has been arrested and a school plunged into lockdown at Lara Friday morning.

Officers were called to Lara Primary School at 8.40am following reports of a man acting suspiciously on Alkara Avenue, which runs along the adjoining Lara Secondary College’s playing fields.

While conducting a search of the man’s bag, officers discovered and seized a machete.

It’s understood only the primary school was sent into lockdown during the incident.

The 24-year-old has since been arrested and is expected to be charged on summons with weapon offences.

A spokesman for the education department said: “Lara Primary School briefly enacted its student safety procedures when a person was seen acting erratically outside the school grounds.”

Noting that no students or staff were harmed, the spokesman added: “The school implemented its incident response plan effectively, police were immediately notified and the school resumed normal operations.”

Lara Secondary College parent Kylie Dolan said she received an email from the school informing her that “someone was acting erratically outside the school”.

“They didn’t actually tell us he had a machete,” she said.

Ms Dolan said she dropped her two children off around the exact time the incident was reported to have occurred but did not notice anything unusual.

“I’m not impressed at all, they definitely should have told us because they’re our kids and we have a right to know,” she said.

Speaking to the Geelong Advertiser, a local resident said he was woken when he heard police yell “get down on the ground,” at a man he described as looking drug affected.

“It would’ve been embarrassing for him with all the kids coming past,” he said.

It comes after premier Jacinta Allan brought forward the state government’s ban on the sale of machetes following a brawl between seven knife-wielding teens at Melbourne’s Northland shopping centre on Sunday afternoon.

The Lara incident came less than a week after youths fought with machetes at Northland shopping centre. Picture: Supplied.

The ban, which was slated to take force on September 1, was implemented on Wednesday at noon.

The statewide ban on possessing a large edged weapon – the first in Australia – won’t come into affect until September 1.

Originally published as Man arrested with machete outside Lara Secondary College