Police have slammed the “herd mentality” of a group of teenagers who hurled chairs in a Sydney shopping centre food court, sparking fear among shoppers.

The unruly brawl erupted at Broadway Shopping Centre, in Glebe, at about 5.50pm Wednesday.

The alleged offenders, aged 15 to 18, were seen hurling the furniture towards another boy, narrowly missing a woman on an escalator.

The incident was captured on camera by TikTok user Brooke Ellen, who watched the “feral kids” from her position one level above.

One youth was riding an e-bike and another had a scooter inside the shopping centre.

They appeared to be targeting someone as they grabbed chairs from the tables and gathered with the items in their hands.

Two chairs were thrown across the centre and then one of the attackers took a long run-up before launching a chair towards a woman who had just stepped onto the escalator.

It smashed into the handrail and rebounded, narrowly missing the woman.

Ellen told news.com.au she was Christmas shopping with her sister when she heard “a lot of loud banging and screaming”.

“I looked over the balcony and it was just teenagers throwing tables and chairs at each other,” she said.

“The girl that got hit in the video was with another boy that they were yelling at.

“And they were trying to throw stuff at him, but he’d run off and she was behind him so they ended up throwing stuff at the girl.”

“I just think it’s just feral kids at the end of the day, unruly, untamed,” she said.

Officers attached to Leichhardt Police Area Command were called to the complex on Bay Street.

They were told a group of teenagers had confronted another boy in the food court area before an argument began.

“The group then began to throw chairs at the boy, with some chairs falling to the lower levels of the shopping centre,” said a police statement.

“The group and the boy left before police arrived; no injuries have been reported.”

Detective Chief Inspector Grant Watson said he did not characterise the incident as gang-related.

“There have been some issues in relation to two groups of people, those being from Glebe and from Waterloo, that have been ongoing for a number of months and we have been working very closely with those groups to try and resolve this issue.

“Unfortunately, it has spilled over into the shopping centre and it’s appalling it has spilled over into the shopping centre at Broadway where people were just going about their business.”

Watson slammed the behaviour which described as kids succumbing to “herd mentality”.

“It’s about respect. A lot of these kids, they’re egged on by peer pressure. 
They think that they’re in a group and they start to behave, you know, probably differently if they were by themselves,” he said.

“Don’t just follow the herd and to respect yourself, your community and those people that are in that shopping centre.”

Police are appealing for anyone with information or vision of the incident to come forward.