MELBOURNE • Several police officers were wounded and hundreds of protesters were arrested in Australia's second-most populous city yesterday in violent clashes at an anti-lockdown march.

Officers used pepper spray and made over 200 arrests in Melbourne as several hundred attendees flouted stay-at-home orders and marched through an inner-city suburb.

The illegal gathering came as the city is going through its sixth lockdown since the Covid-19 pandemic started, with the wider state of Victoria reporting over 500 cases of infection yesterday.

Police said six officers were taken to hospital after they were pelted with projectiles and trampled in clashes with the crowd of around 700 people.

"What we saw today was a group of protesters that came together, not to protest freedoms, but simply to take on and have a fight with the police," said Victoria Police Commander Mark Galliott.

Police attempted to reduce access to the centre of the city, blocking roads and stopping public transport in a bid to avoid a repeat of violent scenes at a rally that drew thousands last month.

But marchers then relocated, with footage from one incident showing a crowd charging through a police line as scuffles erupted along a tram route.

Huge numbers of police managed to deter a similar gathering in Sydney, with officers swarming a park where the protest had been due to go ahead.

Police said they arrested around 20 people in the city, mainly across the public transport network, while several others were arrested in smaller gatherings around the state.

Both cities are enduring lengthy lockdowns as the authorities race to vaccinate a way out of restrictions amid growing outbreaks.

The arrival of the Delta variant of the coronavirus plunged Australia's two largest cities under stay-at-home orders earlier this year, and the authorities are now aiming for a 70 per cent vaccination rate before further easing lockdowns.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE