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King hit in Sydney on New Year's Eve: teenager fights for his life King hit in Sydney on New Year's Eve: teenager fights for his life
(about 1 hour later)
A teenager is fighting for his life after being king hit during Sydney’s new year celebrations. An 18-year-old man is fighting for his life after sustaining serious injuries when he was hit in Sydney on New Year’s Eve, in one of a number of serious assaults that occurred across the country.
As the first fireworks display showered over Sydney Harbour at 9pm (AEDT) on New Year's Eve, the 18-year-old man was knocked to the ground in an unprovoked attack at Kings Cross, police say. Police said the man was the victim of an unprovoked attack and they had arrested a 25-year-old man in relation to the assault, which occurred in the Kings Cross area of the city. The 18-year-old was said to be in a critical condition in St Vincent’s hospital.
He underwent emergency surgery for serious head injuries at St Vincent's hospital, where he remains in a critical condition. In Western Australia, a man was killed with a machete and another man was injured after violence at a beach party, according to police. The party was held at Wedge Island, 160km north of Perth. The injured man’s condition was described as serious.
A 25-year-old man will face Parramatta bail court on New Year's Day charged with assault. A 63-year-old man was stabbed several times in Adelaide and was left in a critical condition.
The attack took place on the same street where teenage king hit victim Thomas Kelly was killed in 2012. Police said a 55-year-old woman had been charged with attempted murder and had also been taken to hospital for treatment of unspecified injuries.
Elsewhere in the city, more than 100 New Year's Eve revellers were rescued from sinking boats in two separate incidents on Sydney Harbour. An investigation was also under way into a fatal stabbing that occurred in Port Macquarie on the mid-north coast of New South Wales. Emergency services were called to an address in the town on the morning of New Year’s Day and found the wounded 44-year-old man. Paramedics attempted to resuscitate him, but he died at the scene.
Three people were taken to hospital – one unconscious and in a serious condition – after their boat sank at 9.40pm. State and territory emergency services reported that police and ambulance officers received a high volume of calls to respond to alcohol-fuelled incidents.
And 100 partygoers were rescued from a yacht near Garden Island about 8pm when the vessel began taking on water. Record crowds in major cities led to heavy police presences, with more than 3,000 police deployed and 173 arrests in New South Wales alone.
No one was injured in that incident. “There were a small number of people who didn’t heed our warnings, exceeded their limits and came to our attention – and they were swiftly dealt with," said New South Wales police assistant commissioner Mark Murdoch.
Overall, more than 170 people were arrested across NSW during the new year festivities, as more than 3,000 police officers took to the streets. “Intoxication has been the most common issue of the evening and it has been a factor in many of the incidents where charges were laid.”
They were charged with 222 offences including assault, robbery and drug offences. More than a hundred were arrested in Adelaide, mainly for behaviour offences. Twenty-six drivers were found to be over the legal limit for alcohol consumption and 12 had positive drug tests.
Assistant Commissioner Mark Murdoch said Sydney arguably saw the biggest crowds ever this year, with 1.6 million people crowding into the CBD to watch the fireworks. In Victoria, paramedics were under pressure, with a mobile triage unit operating in the Melbourne inner city seeing over 140 people who needed treatment. Twenty-three people were arrested in the Melbourne CBD.
But only a small number of revellers misbehaved, he said. A separate triage centre had to be set up in Melbourne's Edinburgh Gardens after a party led to 20 people requiring care there.
"Intoxication has been the most common issue of the evening and it has been a factor in many of the incidents where charges were laid," he said. "Not one of the people that we saw at Edinburgh Gardens needed to be there," said ambulance Victoria operations manager Paul Holman.
Ten people were taken to sobering up centres, he added. "It was all self-inflicted: lacerations due to broken glass or intoxication.
Paramedics said they responded to an "unexpectedly" high number of calls, many of them related to violence, extreme intoxication and drink-related injuries. "They were valuable ambulance resources that were tied up unnecessarily."
Victoria police assistant commissioner Andrew Crisp said two police officers incurred minor injuries in two separate scuffles.
"They suffered minor injuries. That's very disappointing from my perspective, but keep that in perspective, we've got hundreds of thousands of people in the city," he said.
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