CBRN event in Australia on Thu 30th April 2026

Violence erupted across a rural town in northern Australia on Thursday night, after a crowd of people assaulted a man suspected of killing a five-year-old Indigenous girl and then clashed with the police officers who were arresting him. Officers transported the man, Jefferson Lewis, to a hospital in Alice Springs, where hundreds of people yelled and threw rocks, bottles and other projectiles at the police, according to the national broadcaster, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Mr. Lewis, 47, is suspected of the killing of Kumanjayi Little Baby, as the five-year-old girl is being referred to per her family’s request and Indigenous customs. Many in the crowd outside the hospital said he should be killed and accused the police of protecting him, the ABC reported. Emergency vehicles were damaged or set on fire as the police fired rubber bullets and tear gas in an attempt to disperse the crowd. On Friday morning, trash and white stains of tear gas lined the streets outside the hospital, while a nearby gas station appeared to be looted and its windows shattered, local media reported. For five days, the police and volunteers had scoured dense and rough terrain surrounding the Old Timers Aboriginal Town Camp, south of Alice Springs in the Northern Territory, looking for the girl.