Protests against the strict corona restrictions in parts of Australia have led to clashes between demonstrators and security forces, some of them serious.
As the police in the state of Victoria announced on Saturday, 218 people were arrested at rallies in Melbourne.
Seven police officers were injured in the "violent and illegal protests".
The officers used pepper spray against participants in the protests.
"There were some peaceful demonstrators present, but the majority of the participants had violence in mind," said Victoria police.
In Sydney, according to the New South Wales police, more than 1,500 security guards were on duty over protests.
They set up roadblocks and arrested dozens of people.
Numerous people also protested against the corona measures in Brisbane in the state of Queensland.
Seven weeks of lockdown in Sydney
In response to the increasing spread of the coronavirus in Australia's second largest state, Melbourne and other parts of Victoria, the authorities extended a night curfew to the entire state on Saturday.
According to the new order, people must stay at home between 9:00 p.m. and 5:00 a.m.
Australia's largest city, Sydney, is already in its seventh week in a lockdown.
The more than five million residents are called upon to only leave their homes in urgent cases.
The measures were extended to at least September.
Australia had initially been able to contain the corona pandemic for a long time by closing its borders, quickly imposing lockdowns in known cases and intensive contact tracing.
In recent months, however, the number of infections has increased due to the highly contagious Delta variant.
The vaccination campaign, which started slowly at first, has now picked up speed, but less than a third of Australians are fully vaccinated against the coronavirus.
More than 42,000 corona cases and 974 deaths related to the virus have been recorded in Australia since the pandemic began.