Hundreds of protesters clashed with Australian emergency services workers in Alice Springs following the alleged murder of a five-year-old Indigenous girl, police said on Friday (May 1).

Australian Broadcasting Corporation video shows hundreds of protesters gathering outside Alice Springs Hospital, where Jefferson Lewis, a 47-year-old man who police allege killed the girl, was being treated after being found by locals and badly beaten, Northern Territory Police said.

Local media reported police fired tear gas to disperse protesters, who threw projectiles and lit fires, including setting two police cars alight.

The girl, who was found dead on Thursday (April 30) by one of hundreds of people searching the harsh desert terrain around the town, was reported missing from her home on the outskirts of Alice Springs late on Saturday (April 25).

Lewis was later moved to the territory capital, Darwin, in the early hours of Friday morning for his own safety and is likely to be charged in the coming days, police said.

DESCRIPCIÓN DE IMÁGENES

ALICE SPRINGS, AUSTRALIA (MAY 1, 2026) (AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION - Broadcast: No use Australia. Digital: No use Australia / .com.au internet sites / any internet site of any Australia based media organisations or mobile platforms / Australian NVO clients / smh.com.au / news.com.au) (NIGHT SHOTS)

1. PEOPLE CLASHING WITH POLICE OUTSIDE HOSPITAL / PROTESTERS TOSSING SAND

2. PROTESTERS TOSSING SAND TOWARDS POLICE

3. PROTESTERS FILMING AND YELLING AT POLICE

4. PROTESTERS TOSSING SAND AND YELLING AT POLICE

5. PROTESTER POINTING FINGER AND YELLING AT POLICE

6. PROTESTER THROWING BIN TOWARDS POLICE OUTSIDE HOSPITAL

7. TEAR GAS SMOKE SPREADING ACROSS AREA

8. PEOPLE LEAVING SCENE AS TEAR GAS SPREADS

9. PEOPLE HITTING POLICE VEHICLE AND CLIMBING ON TOP OF VEHICLE AND STOMPING

10. PERSON LIGHTING FIRE UNDERNEATH POLICE VEHICLE NEAR REAR TYRES

11. POLICE DRAGGING AND LIFTING PERSON AWAY FROM CROWD TOWARDS HOSPITAL

12. POLICE FIRING RUBBER BULLETS BEFORE RETREATING TO HOSPITAL

13. POLICE SPRAYING PEPPER SPRAY ONTO PERSON BEFORE RETREATING

14. PERSON WIPING EYES

15. PROTESTERS YELLING AT POLICE

16. PROTESTERS FILMING ON PHONES

17. (SOUNDBITE) (English) UNIDENTIFIED INDIGENOUS WOMAN, SAYING:

“We are so angry. For what he (Jefferson Lewis, a 47-year-old man whom police allege killed the girl) has done. She was an innocent little baby. So vulnerable. Yet they’re protecting him. For what’s he done? Come on, let us have him. Innocent little baby. She has to go through the pain like a big girl.”

18. (SOUNDBITE) (English) INDIGENOUS MAN FROM ALICE SPRINGS, HARLEY MYERS, SAYING:

“I want to say this is really wrong, and we’re all sad, and we’re all hurt. The feeling that they’re (the police) protecting this guy. They are shooting us with rubber bullets and shooting us with all that. We’ve got bullets all over again. People got shot a couple of years ago for this stuff, and it’s like the system is not sticking up for us. Let us get our own traditional payback and just let us walk all over us with our laws and culture, you know.”

19. (SOUNDBITE) (English) UNIDENTIFIED INDIGENOUS MAN, SAYING:

“I reckon everybody wants justice for him. For the five-year-old girl, it’s just unfair, really.”

20. POLICE OFFICERS BEHIND VEHICLE

21. POLICE VEHICLE WINDSCREEN DAMAGED

22. POLICE OFFICER BEHIND VEHICLE

23. INDIGENOUS MAN YELLING AT POLICE