Three injured in boozy muck-up party

A rival school or disgruntled neighbours could be among suspects after an
end-of-school party for around 200 students in a suburban park turned violent on
Monday night.
Police say five or six masked males ran through the gathering, terrifying youths
from Mt Waverley Secondary College and randomly hitting them with weapons believed
to be poles or baseball bats.
Three students ended up in hospital - one with severe concussion and a suspected
broken jaw.
The Valley Reserve park, littered with discarded bottles and cans, has been declared
a crime scene by police.
Glen Waverley Detective Senior Constable Adam McNamara said up to 200 people
gathered in the park to celebrate the end of their school life.
When asked if people, whose homes backed on to the park and were upset by the late
night noise could have been behind the attack, he said that would be considered
during the investigation.
"The investigation is still undergoing in relation to their identity," Sen Con
McNamara said.
The party in Melbourne's southeast had been advertised on the internet social page
Facebook.
Mt Waverley principal Mark Kosach said the students were celebrating when at around
11.30pm (AEDT) the masked men ran through them, randomly hitting people with the
bats and poles.
"It seems people dropped everything and ran when this happened," Mr Kosach said.
"There had been some drinking, there was a bonfire and a barbecue."
One student told ABC Radio that three or four males ran out from behind bushes and
started lashing out at the partygoers.
"Everyone just ran because they were being attacked by these three or four guys,"
the female student said.
"They didn't say anything - they just ran out the bushes and hit people, boy, girl,
like whoever, they just hit them."
Premier John Brumby said the unprovoked attack was un-Victorian and the perpetrators
would be tracked down by police and brought to account.
"There has been a group of individuals in balaclavas that have run through a group
of students and assaulted them in an unprovoked way and there is nothing, I think,
that is more un-Victorian than that - it just offends all of our values in this
state," Mr Brumby said.
Mr Kosach said he had spoken with the students at assembly on Tuesday and offered
counselling for any who may be traumatised.