Two-week youth curfew in place for Alice Springs CBD

A youth curfew will be imposed in Alice Springs from tonight after violent unrest in the town.

The unrest came to a head when a large group of people armed with knives and weapons attacked a pub and walked menacingly through the streets last night.

The curfew will include the CBD of Alice Springs and apply to everyone under 18 years of age. It will run from 6pm to 6am for the next 14 days.

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There will be no criminal penalties imposed on anyone breaking curfew.

Instead, NT Chief Minister Eva Lawler said anyone under 18 found in the town centre after curfew "will be taken home or taken to a safe place".

More than 50 extra police officers will also be deployed.

Earlier, the mayor of Alice Springs pleaded for more police to protect the town and its residents.

Mayor Matt Paterson said Alice Springs had this morning woken up "frightened" and "on edge" after yesterday's violence, which forced some people to barricade themselves inside the Todd Tavern to escape potential danger.

Footage of the attack, filmed from inside the tavern, showed people hurling rocks and bricks at the pub. One person delivers a flying kick to the door.

The trouble is believed linked to the death of an 18-year-old man who was killed in a crash earlier this month involving an allegedly stolen Toyota Hilux ute.

Paterson estimated around 70 people had surrounded the pub, which is located a few hundred metres from a preschool and primary school.

The attack "happened at three o'clock in the afternoon while people are picking up their school children," Paterson told 9news.com.au.

Later that evening, "a group of probably 80 to 100 people ... with weapons" had walked into the town centre, amplifying the atmosphere of fear, he said.

9News understands police arrested five people and seized 50 weapons.

"I can't really explain the feeling in town at the moment," Paterson said.

"It's scared, it's frightened. People are on edge. There's a large concern that things, the events of yesterday, will repeat themselves today.

"And that's obviously why we need boots on the ground. We need more resources. We don't have enough."

Paterson said he had been pleading with territory and federal governments for the last 12 months for more police resources, and that "yesterday was a prime example" why.

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"Alice Springs residents at the moment are scared. They need to be made to feel safe and the way to do that is by visual presence of police," he said.

"We need more police. I don't care if it's the AFP, whether they're the police from other jurisdictions, they need to come to Alice Springs and remove this level of uncertainty that we've got here."

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Darren Clark, who founded the crime awareness group Action for Alice, told 2GB that "our town is under siege" and he called for "federal intervention up here".

Clark claimed the group had brandished crowbars and axes on the streets yesterday.

"It's just totally insane. It's the worst event that most of us here have seen and ... I've seen a hell of a lot in the last four years."

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