A fight between a group of South Auckland high school girls, which was filmed and uploaded to Facebook, is being investigated by police.
A screenshot from the video, showing policemen trying to intervene. Photo: Facebook
The video of yesterday's brawl, shot on a mobile phone, has been viewed hundreds of thousands of times on the social networking site, and shows as many as 50 teenage girls dressed in their school uniforms kicking and hitting one another.
Girls are seen being pinned to the ground and punched and kicked, but police said no one was seriously injured.
Police said the fight, which reportedly took place on Browns Road in Manurewa, had been organised online.
Counties Manukau Central area commander Inspector Julia Lynch Photo: RNZ/Rowan Quinn
Counties Manukau Central area commander Inspector Julia Lynch said the incident was not isolated.
She said teenagers were increasingly using social media to organise brawls and other crimes like ram raids, aggravated robbery and stealing cars.
"It's not just happening in Counties Manukau. It's happening around New Zealand. They are getting online and coordinating things and it is happening really quickly."
The video of the South Auckland incident shows police being hit and punched as they attempt to break up the fight .
Inspector Lynch said they had to call for back up.
"It's pretty shocking. You see the police officers arrive, and yet these young people are still getting in there and trying to pull people away from the officers."
She said parents needed to know what their children were doing online.
One girl was referred to the police Youth Aid and police were trying to identify others involved.
Manurewa School Principal Pete Jones. Photo: RNZ/Rowan Quinn
Manurewa School Principal Pete Jones said seeing the fight made him sick.
"It's horrible. As a parent, as a teacher and a member of the community, you just don't want to see that."
"You worry. If you ever work with young people, you see when they get into that state, into that red mist, it's very hard to get them out of it."
He said the school had been trying very had to instil strong values and he was extremely disappointed.
It is one of several videos uploaded to Facebook over the last few months showing fights between high school students in New Zealand.
A video of a teenage girl being punched in the face by another girl, who was allegedly made to fight by her parents, was investigated by West Auckland police in March.
In May, a teenage girl in Kaikohe was charged with assault after a video surfaced on Facebook showing another girl being brutally beaten.
Last month, Auckland police vowed to crack down on teenage fights after a spate of school brawls, one of which involved up to 60 students and took place at a suburban train station.
