'It was like hell': Wedding party caught in police pepper-spray crossfire

A couple's dream wedding has turned into a nightmare after the wedding party was caught in the crossfire of a dramatic police operation.

The bride had no choice but to defend her guests after police discharged pepper spray into the crowd.

"The wedding was like going from such happiness and excitement and so much fun to, to - it was like hell," Hiba, the bride, told A Current Affair.

"It was literally like raging hell."

Dozens of police, including some from the elite Public Order Response Team, had shut down a stretch of Sydney Rd in Melbourne's north to intercept a group of teens causing havoc along the tram line.

Police had earlier evicted the group from a party at a nearby Airbnb apartment before they headed down Sydney Rd.

The gang of youths exited the tram and descended on wedding guests while they farewelled the bride and groom out the front of the reception.

"About 40 girls just wanted to run towards us and attack us all, and it just got … really scary. The police just ran towards us and just started spraying everyone," Kareem, the groom, told A Current Affair. 

A Current Affair has obtained video filmed by wedding guests showing the gang of youths running towards the reception.

The dramatic footage also shows wedding guests, including children and elderly guests, washing their eyes and faces with water and saline. 

Both the groom and bride's mothers were among those showered in pepper spray.

The bride's mother, Douha, has been in and out of the hospital since the incident with breathing difficulties and she has suffered cuts to her face.

"I thought my mother was going to die," Hiba said.

Kareem said: "It was just disgusting."

"You'd be so careless to spray like that … It's unprofessional. You know, you're a goose."

Another guest, Stefanie, was placing her toddler in a car nearby when the fracas erupted and her seven-year-old daughter was later filmed being treated in an ambulance.

"To hear her cry like that, and say, 'mama, I can't see, my eyes, mama, I can't see'," she said.

Jeremy King, the principal of law firm Robinson Gill Lawyers, said the force that police use needs to be proportionate to the level of threat.

"OC Spay is really serious stuff - I can't emphasise that enough, and it can have really serious consequences on people, particularly if you're elderly, if you have breathing problems or if you're a young child," Mr King said. 

"There are a lot of police there - you can't tell me there's not a better way of doing it."

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