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Anyone who wants to enjoy a night out in Melbourne this weekend should watch out for arsonists, police say, after a spate of firebombings at licensed venues across the city this week.<\/p>\n
Police issued the extraordinary warning on Friday afternoon after at least six targeted attacks on hospitality venues since Tuesday.<\/p>\n
The Men\u2019s Gallery on Lonsdale Street, the Albion in South Melbourne, the Emerson in South Yarra, and Kittens Strip Club in South Melbourne are among the clubs and bars attacked.<\/p>\n
Two venues on Southbank \u2013 the Soho Restaurant and Bar, plus a neighbouring business \u2013 were also hit on Friday morning.<\/p>\n
At a press conference on Friday afternoon, Detective Inspector Chris Murray, of the arson and explosives squad, said all owners were co-operative and didn\u2019t know why they\u2019d been attacked.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s early days, but we are none the wiser as to why these premises are being targeted,\u201d Murray said.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
In an earlier statement, police implored anyone out in the Melbourne CBD and inner suburbs, including the Chapel Street precinct, to remain alert this weekend.<\/p>\n
\u201cPlease \u2013 if you\u2019re out in metropolitan Melbourne and particularly entertainment precincts this weekend \u2013 call Triple Zero if you see anything suspicious,\u201d Murray said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat could be a car that\u2019s driving too slowly, people behaving oddly or something that just doesn\u2019t look right.\u201d<\/p>\n
The head of the arson squad said none of the businesses targeted had reported any extortion attempts after the fires.<\/p>\n
![\"Fire](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/ad5a1a0b5a917ea39d3c3b5a656c45100f0fffb9.jpeg\")
Fire damage at Soho Restaurant and Bar at Southbank on Friday.AAP Image<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s why I\u2019m here \u2013 we\u2019re very, very keen to understand why this is occurring,\u201d Murray said. \u201cWe\u2019ve seen a spike, and we\u2019re going to respond to that spike.\u201d<\/p>\n
Two boys, aged 16 and 17, were arrested in Balwyn about 5am after an arson attack in Southbank on Friday morning.<\/p>\n
Murray said police generally found youths were being hired anonymously online<\/a> to commit crimes, often without knowing who they were working for.<\/p>\n \u201cThe one common denominator is there is someone sitting above who is pulling the strings. They\u2019re the ones we\u2019re interested in,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \u201cThese young kids are being used as cannon fodder for a few hundred dollars. And when they do go to prison, I can tell you now, they\u2019re not getting phone calls from the people that put them up.\u201d<\/p>\n Police said the Men\u2019s Gallery on Lonsdale Street was also targeted in a drive-by shooting on Friday morning. No one was injured when a single shot was fired towards the strip club around 4.10am. The venue was first targeted in an attempted arson around 5.45am on Tuesday.<\/p>\n The next day, a fire broke out at the Albion on York Street around 3am. Detectives arrested a 25-year-old man from Coburg in relation to that fire on Friday.<\/p>\n On Thursday, suspicious fires broke out around 4.20am at The Emerson on Commercial Road in South Yarra and Kittens on Cecil Street in South Melbourne.<\/p>\n A source from Kittens, who asked not to be identified due to safety concerns, said two masked offenders had failed to set the strip club alight \u2013 only managing to break a window.<\/p>\n \u201cWe asked police last night what\u2019s happening and they said \u2018We\u2019ve got no idea\u2019,\u201d the source said.<\/p>\n \u201cNo one\u2019s got any idea why it\u2019s happening \u2013 only that it\u2019s happening.\u201d<\/p>\n Murray said arsonists had \u201cno idea what they are doing\u201d and warned they could easily kill someone.<\/p>\n \u201cGod forbid, if they set themselves on fire, what hope have people around them got if they can\u2019t get away with the offending without injuring themselves,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Murray said police had no information to suggest a particular venue would be targeted next.<\/p>\n \u201cBut what we\u2019d say to the industry, generally speaking, is have a look at your own security,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd in terms of the police response, we will be heavily focusing on patrols, both overt and covert.\u201d<\/p>\n Police urged anyone with information about who is responsible or the motivation behind the attacks to come forward.<\/p>\n Start the day with a summary of the day\u2019s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n Save<\/p>\n You have reached your maximum number of saved items.<\/p>\n Remove items from your saved list<\/a> to add more.<\/p>\n![\"Detective](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/e7cd2edb253381aed2b63bb984bd0697ba2083fa.jpeg\")
Detective Inspector Chris Murray addresses the media back in 2024.Arsineh Houspian<\/p>\n![\"Carla](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/1831aa086e9fcd1e000a9c8dd83c3a0f4f07cf21dea0583fab18387ffe0cf2db.png\")
Carla Jaeger<\/a> is a journalist for The Age. Got a tip? Email carla.jaeger@theage.com.au or message carlajaeger.62 on Signal.Connect via X<\/a> or email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Updated April 17, 2026 \u2014 3:46pm,first published 2:09pm Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":612311,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-612310","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612310","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=612310"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612310\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/612311"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=612310"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=612310"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=612310"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}