A young Chinese woman says she was held for eight days at a Chinese-run secret detention facility in Dubai along with at least two Uyghurs, in what may be the first evidence that China is operating a so-called “black site” beyond its borders.

The woman, 26-year-old Wu Huan, was on the run to avoid extradition back to China because her fiancé was considered a Chinese dissident.

Wu told The Associated Press she was abducted from a hotel in Dubai and detained by Chinese officials at a villa converted into a jail, where she saw or heard two other prisoners, both Uyghurs.

She was questioned and threatened in Chinese and forced to sign legal documents incriminating her fiancé for harassing her, she said. She was finally released on June 8 and is now seeking asylum in the Netherlands.

While “black sites” are common in China, Wu’s account is the only testimony known to experts that Beijing has set one up in another country.

READ MORE: Calls to release Australian journalist Cheng Le from Chinese detention

Such a site would reflect how China is increasingly using its international clout to detain or bring back citizens it wants from overseas, whether they are dissidents, corruption suspects or ethnic minorities like the Uyghurs.

The AP was unable to confirm or disprove Wu’s account independently, and she could not pinpoint the exact location of the black site.

However, reporters have seen and heard corroborating evidence including stamps in her passport, a phone recording of a Chinese official asking her questions and text messages that she sent from jail to a pastor helping the couple.

China's Foreign Ministry denied her story. “What I can tell you is that the situation the person talked about is not true,” ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said Monday.

Dubai Police stated Monday that any claims of a Chinese woman detained by local authorities on behalf of a foreign country are false, and that Wu freely exited the country with her friend three months ago.

“Dubai does not detain any foreign nationals without following internationally accepted procedures and local law enforcement processes, nor does it allow foreign governments to run any detention centres within its borders,” said a statement from the Dubai government media office.

“Dubai also follows all recognised global norms and procedures set by international organisations like Interpol in the detainment, interrogation and transfer of fugitives sought by foreign governments.”

Black sites are clandestine jails where prisoners generally are not charged with a crime and have no legal recourse, with no bail or court order.

Many in China are used to stop petitioners with grievances against local governments, and they often take the form of rooms in hotels or guesthouses.

Yu-Jie Chen, an assistant professor at Taiwan’s Academia Sinica, said she had not heard of a Chinese secret jail in Dubai, and such a facility in another country would be unusual.

However, she also noted that it would be in keeping with China’s attempts to do all it can to bring select citizens back, both through official means such as signing extradition treaties and unofficial means such as revoking visas or putting pressure on family back home.

“(China) really wasn’t interested in reaching out until recent years,” said Chen, who has tracked China’s international legal actions. “This trend is increasingly robust.”

Chen said Uyghurs in particular were being extradited or returned to China, which has been detaining the mostly Muslim minority on suspicion of terrorism even for relatively harmless acts like praying.

The Uyghur Human Rights Project tracked 89 Uyghurs detained or deported from nine countries from 1997 to 2007 through public reports. That number steadily increased to reach 1,327 from 20 countries from 2014 until now, the group found.

Wu and her fiancé, 19-year-old Wang Jingyu, are not Uyghur but rather Han Chinese, the majority ethnicity in China.

Wang is wanted by China because he posted messages questioning Chinese media coverage of the Hong Kong protests in 2019 and China’s actions in a border clash with India.

Along with Uyghurs, China has been cracking down on perceived dissidents and human rights activists, and has launched a massive effort to get back suspect officials as part of a national anti-corruption campaign.

Under President Xi Jinping, China’s most authoritarian leader in decades, Beijing brought back 1,421 people in 2020 alone for alleged corruption and financial crime under Operation Skynet.

However, the AP could not find comprehensive numbers for how many Chinese citizens overall have been detained or deported from overseas in recent years.

Dubai also has a history as a place where Uyghurs are interrogated and deported back to China.

And activists say Dubai itself has been linked to secret interrogations involving other countries.

Radha Stirling, a legal advocate who founded the advocacy group Detained in Dubai, said she has worked with about a dozen people who have reported being held in villas in the UAE, including citizens of Canada, India and Jordan but not China.

“There is no doubt that the UAE has detained people on behalf of foreign governments with whom they are allied,” Stirling said. “I don’t think they would at all shrug their shoulders to a request from such a powerful ally.”

However, Patrick Theros, a former US ambassador to Qatar who is now strategic advisor to the Gulf International Forum, called the allegations “totally out of character” for the Emiratis.

"They don’t allow allies freedom of movement,” he said. “The idea that the Chinese would have a clandestine centre, it makes no sense.”

The US State Department had no comment on Wu’s specific case or on whether there is a Chinese-run black site in Dubai.

“We will continue to coordinate with allies and partners to stand against transnational repression everywhere,” it said in a statement to the AP.

Held in a villa

Wu, a Chinese millennial with cropped hair dyed blonde, never cared about politics before. But after her fiancé was arrested in Dubai on April 5 on unclear charges, she started giving interviews to media and getting in touch with overseas-based Chinese dissidents for help.

On May 27, Wu said, she was questioned by Chinese officials at her hotel, the Element al-Jaddaf, and then taken by Dubai police to the Bur Dubai police station.

Staff for the hotel declined in a phone interview to confirm her stay or her departure, saying it was against company policy to disclose information about guests.

She was held for three days at the police station, she said, with her phone and personal belongings confiscated.

On the third day, she said, a Chinese man who introduced himself as Li Xuhang came to visit her. He told her he was working for the Chinese consulate in Dubai, and asked her whether she had taken money from foreign groups to act against China.

“I said no, I love China so much. My passport is Chinese. I’m a Chinese person. I speak Chinese,” she said. “I said, how could I do that?”

Li Xuhang is listed as consul general on the website of the Chinese consulate in Dubai. The consulate did not return multiple calls asking for comment and to speak with Li directly.

Wu said Li took her out of the police station along with another Chinese man who handcuffed her, and they put her in a black Toyota. There were multiple Chinese people in the car, but Wu was too scared to get a clear look at their faces.

Her heart thumping, they drove past an area where many Chinese lived and owned businesses in Dubai called International City, which Wu recognised from an earlier trip to Dubai.

After driving for half an hour, they stopped on a deserted street with rows of identical compounds. She was brought inside a white-coloured villa with three stories, where a series of rooms had been converted into individual cells, she said.

The house was quiet and cold in contrast with the desert heat. Wu was taken to her own cell, a room which had been renovated to have a heavy metal door.

There was a bed in her room, a chair and a white fluorescent light that was on all day and night. The metal door remained closed except when they fed her.

“Firstly, there’s no sense of time,” Wu said. “And second, there’s no window, and I couldn’t see if it was day or night.”

Wu said a guard took her to a room several times where they questioned her in Chinese and threatened that she would never be allowed to leave. The guards wore face masks all the time.

She saw another prisoner, a Uyghur woman, while waiting to use the bathroom once, she said. A second time, she heard a Uyghur woman shouting in Chinese, “I don’t want to go back to China, I want to go back to Turkey.” Wu identified the women as Uyghurs based on what she said was their distinctive appearance and accent.

Wu said she was fed twice a day, with the second meal a stack of plain flatbread. She had to ask the guards for permission to drink water or go to the bathroom. She was supposed to be allowed to go the bathroom a maximum of five times a day, Wu said, but that depended on the mood of the guards.

The guards also gave her a phone and a SIM card and instructed her to call her fiancé and pastor Bob Fu, the head of ChinaAid, a Christian non-profit, who was helping the couple.

Wang confirmed to the AP that Wu called and asked him for his location. Fu said he received at least four or five calls from her during this time, a few on an unknown Dubai phone number, including one where she was crying and almost incoherent.

She again blamed Wang and said Fu should not help him.

The AP also reviewed text messages Wu sent to Fu at the time, which are disjointed and erratic.

“I could tell she was hiding from telling me her whereabouts,” said Fu. “At that point we concluded that something has happened to her that prevented her from even talking.”

Wu said towards the end of her stay, she refused meals, screamed and cried in an effort to be released. The last thing her captors demanded of her, she said, was to sign documents in Arabic and English testifying that Wang was harassing her.

“I was really scared and was forced to sign the documents,” she told the AP. “I didn’t want to sign them.”

Hub for Chinese intelligence

Reports have emerged in recent years of Emiratis and foreigners being taken to villas, sometimes indefinitely.

Perhaps the best-known case involves Sheikha Latifa bint Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the daughter of the ruler of Dubai.

Sheikha Latifa tried to flee in 2018 by boat, but was intercepted by the Indian coast guard in the Arabian Sea and handed back to the UAE.

In videos published by the BBC in February, she claims she was held against her will in a villa in Dubai.

“I’m a hostage,” she says in one of the videos. “This villa has been converted into jail.” A statement since issued on behalf of Sheikha Latifa said she is now free to travel.

China and the UAE, a federation of seven sheikhdoms on the Arabian Peninsula, have deep economic and political ties and also work together on counterintelligence.

China ratified an extradition treaty with the UAE in 2002 and a judicial cooperation treaty in 2008. The UAE was an experimental site for China’s COVID vaccines and cooperated with China on making tests.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the crown prince of Abu Dhabi and de facto ruler of the UAE, has said he was willing to work with China to “jointly strike against terrorist extremist forces”, including the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, a militant group Beijing has accused of fostering Uyghur separatism.

In late 2017 and early 2018, local authorities arrested and deported at least five Uyghurs to China, according to four friends and relatives who spoke by phone with the AP.

In one case, a long-time UAE resident, Ahmad Talip, was called in for questioning at a local police station and detained, according to his wife, Amannisa Abdullah, who is now in Turkey. In another case, eight plainclothes officers broke into a hotel room and arrested a 17-year-old boy who had just fled a police raid in Egypt.

The detentions were carried out by Arabs who appeared to be UAE police, not Chinese agents, the Uyghurs said. However, one of the detainees, Huseyin Imintohti, was sought by three Chinese agents at a Uyghur restaurant in Dubai before his deportation, according to his wife, Nigare Yusup.

Another Uyghur detainee, Yasinjan Memtimin, was interrogated twice by people in the UAE who appeared to be Chinese police, said his wife, who declined to be named out of fear of retribution. She said she had heard from a Uyghur who fled overseas of a detention facility in the UAE where Uyghurs were detained and interrogated, but she could not offer more details.

The UAE appears to be a hub for Chinese intelligence on Uyghurs in the Middle East, former Uyghur residents told The AP. A Uyghur linguist, Abduweli Ayup, said he had spoken with three Uyghurs coerced into working as spies in Turkey who passed through Dubai to pick up SIM cards and cash and meet Chinese agents.

Jasur Abibula, a former Xinjiang government worker, also told the AP that Chinese state security lured him from the Netherlands to the UAE in 2019 after his ex-wife, Asiye Abdulaheb, obtained confidential documents on internment camps in Xinjiang.

He was greeted by a dozen or so people working for the Chinese government in Dubai, he said, including at least two who introduced themselves as working for China’s Ministry of State Security.

One, a Uyghur man in his fifties who gave his name as Dolet, said he was stationed in Dubai. The other, a Han Chinese man who spoke fluent Uyghur, said he was on a mission to uncover the source of the leaks, according to Abibula.

The agents presented Abibula with a USB and asked him to insert it in his ex-wife’s computer. They offered him money, put him up in a Hilton resort and bought toys for his kids. They also threatened him, showing him a video of his mother back in China. On a drive through dunes of sand, one said it reminded him of the deserts back in Xinjiang.

“If we kill and bury you here, nobody will able to find your body,” he recalled them telling him. Abibula is now back in the Netherlands, where the AP spoke to him by phone, and he sent photos of some of the agents, his hotel and his plane ticket to support his claims.

Besides the UAE, many other countries have cooperated with China in sending Uyghurs back. In 2015, Thailand repatriated over 100 Uyghurs to China. In 2017, Egyptian police detained hundreds of Uyghur students and residents and sent them back as well.

Rodney Dixon, a London-based rights lawyer representing Uyghur groups, said his team has filed a case against Tajikistan in the International Criminal Court, accusing local authorities of aiding China in deporting Uyghurs.

China isn’t the first country to hunt people deemed terror suspects outside its borders. After 9/11, the US government also operated and controlled a network of CIA clandestine detention facilities overseas in countries including Thailand, Lithuania and Romania. The CIA’s detention and interrogation program ended in 2009.

'I'm afraid to call you'

After Wu was released, she was taken back to the same hotel she had stayed at and given her personal belongings. She immediately reached out to Fu, apologised for her past calls and asked for help, in text messages seen by the AP.

“I’m afraid to call you,” she told Fu in one message. “I’m afraid I will be overheard.”

On June 11, she flew out of Dubai to Ukraine, where she was reunited with Wang.

After threats from Chinese police that Wang could face extradition from Ukraine, the couple fled again to the Netherlands. Wu said she misses her homeland.

“I’ve discovered that the people deceiving us are Chinese, that it’s our countrymen hurting our own countrymen,” she said. “That is the situation.”

With hundreds of Afghans rushing the tarmac of Kabul's international airport desperate to flee the return of the Taliban, a young Afghan woman stood in limbo between two worlds.

In one world, Massouma Tajik would board a flight to a country she did not know, destined to become a refugee. In another, she would stay in an Afghanistan under Taliban rule, forced to wipe out the last 20 years of all that she had built and achieved.

Sleepless, hungry and scared, she has been waiting for hours at the airport for a flight she feared would never come with questions she could not answer.

"I am in the airport, waiting to get a flight but I don't know to where," she said, speaking to The Associated Press over the phone.

READ MORE: Seven killed in Kabul airport chaos

"I am here, confused, hungry and hopeless. I don't know what is coming my way. Where will I go? How will I spend my days? Who will support my family?"

Ms Tajik, a 22-year old data analyst working for a US contractor helping Afghan businesses, had gotten the call on Sunday afternoon, informing her she had just 10 minutes to leave for the airport. She had been put on an evacuation list heading to the United States or Mexico — she was told nothing more. She did not have a visa in her passport.

She left a friend's apartment in Kabul with just the clothes on her back, a knapsack, laptop and her phone.

"My dreams and my plans, are all inside this small backpack," she said.

As the Taliban swept into Kabul on Sunday after President Ashraf Ghani fled the country, bringing an end to a two-decade campaign in which the US and its allies had tried to transform Afghanistan, Ms Tajik and a group of Afghans working for US media were rushed to the city's international airport by their American friends.

READ MORE: ADF troops sent to Afghanistan to evacuate hundreds of citizens

The speed of the Afghan government's collapse, the ensuing chaos and the near-complete takeover of the country — just two weeks before the final pullout of the last US and NATO troops — has shocked many in Afghanistan and beyond. For Afghan women, it raised fears that all they had achieved in women's rights, the right to go to school and work, would be swiftly taken away.

On the way to the airport, Ms Tajik looked out the window, taking in the last glimpses of Kabul streets, "filled with a scary silence".

There was barely time to call her family in the western province of Herat, seized by the Taliban last week in the insurgents relentless sweep. Before the fall, Ms Tajik had fled the city of Herat, the provincial capital and her hometown, for the Afghan capital, "with hope that Kabul would resist."

"But everything changed," she said. "Everything collapsed in front of my eyes."

READ MORE: How Afghanistan disintegrated and what comes next

Her family did not object to her leaving even though at 22, she was their breadwinner. That role brought her respect and pride — something the Taliban could take away. She also knew that by staying, she would become a liability for her loved ones — a young woman, educated at an international university and working with foreigners.

"When I left Herat I thought I cannot leave my family like this, but staying there I become a risk for them," she said. If the Taliban found out, she is convinced "they will hurt my family."

Before leaving Herat, she destroyed all evidence linking her with international organisations, including newspaper clippings. Apart from working as a US contractor, in July she was also featured in a prominent US paper.

"I burned them, I buried them, and I left," she said.

READ MORE: Taliban seizes control of Kabul, Australians rush to flee

Once at the airport, she saw Afghans waiting desperately for a plane out, some breaking into tears. She was tired, she had not slept in three days. Rumours circulated that the planes may even be cancelled. Others asked why there was no security and who would protect them.

"The Taliban can come at any time," she said, her voice faltering.

Six hours passed. She heard shots ring out from the outside — was it the Taliban?

From where she was, she could see a plane on the tarmac, but it wasn't hers. A mad rush of men and women followed, people overtaking one another, desperate to get out. She watched from a cold steel bench, and for a moment, thought of the unknown that awaited her on the other side.

"I might end up on the other side of the world, in a refugee camp. I have no food, no money with me," she said. And she missed her family. "I am worried for their lives," she said. "All these years of education and hard work, in the hope of making a better life and helping other Afghans ended up being for nothing."

By midnight on Sunday, she thought of giving up and taking a taxi back to Kabul. Herat was out of the question. She got up, but just as quickly changed her mind again.

Sleep would not come. She said looters were causing havoc inside the terminal. She left with her travel companions to wait outside on the runway.

At daybreak, thousands of Afghans had streamed into the airport. Ms Tajik said she saw US soldiers fire shots in the air. Her flight would be here soon, she was told.

Later on Monday, US military officials said the chaos at the Kabul airport had left seven people dead, including some who fell from a departing American military transport jet.

"I will never forgive the world for staying silent," she said. "I didn't deserve this. No one deserves this."

A teenage girl who mowed down an innocent pedestrian in Melbourne's west while driving a stolen car has escaped conviction.

An exclusive investigation by 9News reporter Neary Ty revealed locals remain angry the 17-year-old driver was only sentenced to youth supervision.

Shoppers were forced to run for their lives as the allegedly stolen Honda wreaked havoc through the streets of Footscray last month.

"It was doing doughies … it was going nuts," local business owner Fox Yemata said.

READ MORE: Melbourne's lockdown extended for two weeks

"It's bad to see there are teenagers out there that don't care."

Mr Yemata's father was just metres away when he saw the young woman get struck.

The woman was taken to the Royal Melbourne Hospital with a twisted ankle and bruising.

She now walks down the street having to look over her shoulder at every car.

"It could have been more people injured at the time. Thank god you didn't find five, six people in that incident there," Mr Yemata said.

The car was allegedly stolen from Anytime Fitness in Sunshine on July 9.

The following day it was involved in a hit-run crash in Footscray.

An hour later, the 17-year-old smashed into a wall in Trugo Lane, rupturing a gas pipe.

READ MORE: Melbourne's tough new COVID-19 restrictions explained

Around 5pm, police tried to approach the vehicle on Paisley Street but the teen driver and her passenger took off driving erratically, narrowly missing a bus and other cars.

They then hit the pedestrian and allegedly fled the scene, before heading onto Droop Street where the car was dumped.

Police arrested them at the scene, where the pair allegedly refused to undertake a preliminary breath test.

Last week, the 17-year-old driver pleaded guilty and was sentenced to a 12-month youth supervision order without a conviction.

"It's quite an onerous sentence," Barrister Ffyona Livingstone Clark told 9News.

An elderly Queensland man and his stepdaughter have spoken of their heartbreak after being told they can't see their dying wife and mother in a NSW hospital.

Queensland's newest border restrictions prevent them from travelling to the southern state for a compassion visit without doing two weeks quarantine when travelling back.

John Graham broke down while explaining his situation to 9News, saying his wife Veronica couldn't be transferred to a Queensland hospital and he wouldn't be allowed across the border.

READ MORE: Queensland Government sign off on 'urgent' Brisbane quarantine facility

"They won't bring her over to a Queensland hospital, they've got to take her to Tweed Heads," Mr Graham said.

"They're saying if you come over and your partner is still alive … you could be in quarantine for 14 days.

"I can't do any more than I have done."

Veronica's daughter Kathleen Fackler said her mother's condition had deteriorated to the point where they don't know how long she has left to live.

"Mum has Alzheimer's and she's given up eating and drinking … but we can't go and see her," Ms Fackler said.

"We're just concerned that she's going to die and not have any family member around her when she passes away."

The family said its last resort is to reach out to Queensland Health and seek a exemption before it's too late.

New border restrictions have caused chaos on state-lines as the Delta COVID-19 strain swirls out of control in NSW.

As of 8pm yesterday, those residents in NSW-Queensland border towns are only allowed to enter the Sunshine State for the purposes of "obtaining essential goods and services that can't reasonably be obtained in NSW".

"Given the escalation of local restrictions, we have no choice but to put in place a tighter border situation to protect Queenslanders," Queensland's Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young said.

"I know this is tough – those living in northern NSW are our close neighbours and they access Queensland for a range of reasons, but right now, that can't continue until their outbreak gets under control."

Legendary broadcaster Brian Henderson has been farewelled in a small private funeral in Sydney.

Henderson hosted the Sydney weeknight news for Nine from 1957 until his retirement in 2002, becoming Australia's longest-serving news presenter.

He died earlier this month aged 89 after a long battle with cancer, but not before planning his own funeral.

READ MORE: Legendary broadcaster Brian Henderson has died aged 89

"No you're not hearing things, obviously this is pre-recorded," a voiceover told the funeral.

"I was lucky enough to do a job I loved and led a full and happy life, so don't be sad."

Watch the full video above.

More than 250 Australian Defence Force troops are being sent to Afghanistan to help with evacuations.

The Taliban has declared the war in Afghanistan is over after insurgents stormed the capital Kabul and the President fled the country.

Now countries around the world are urgently trying to evacuate their citizens from the volatile and fast-changing situation.

READ MORE: What life will be like under the Taliban in Afghanistan

There are 130 Australian citizens and more than 200 former embassy guards and interpreters in the country.

The Department of Defence confirmed this evening personnel have already been deployed on a KC-30A which left Amberley in Queensland today.

It will land at Australia's main operating base in the Middle East to assist the US-led operations.

"Two C-17A Globemasters will also depart for the Middle East later this week," a statement from the department said.

"The situation in Afghanistan remains highly volatile and dangerous.

"Defence is taking all necessary precautions to protect its people and those authorised for evacuation. The mission will be constantly assessed against the latest developments.

"Australia's evacuation efforts are being closely coordinated with international partners."

A joint statement from Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Minister for Defence Peter Dutton, and Minister for Foreign Affairs Marise Payne said the situation is volatile.

READ MORE: Chaos in Kabul: How Afghanistan disintegrated and what comes next

"The situation on the ground in Kabul, as in the rest of Afghanistan, is evolving rapidly," the statement said.

"As in any crisis situation, the Australian Government's priority is to ensure the safety of its citizens.

"We have over 130 Australians in Afghanistan, working in the UN, NGOs, and elsewhere, and we are working to bring them and their families home.

"We are also assisting those who have been granted humanitarian visas, and others who are in the process of applying for protection."

The government is working with the US, UK, Canada, and other allies and partners.

The statement warned the Taliban "will be held fully accountable for any killing or other mistreatment of Afghan military and other security forces who have surrendered or been captured" and said people should be allowed to leave safely.

The ever-charming TV host, radio presenter and singer Ernie Sigley, best known as "the little Aussie battler", has passed away at age 82.

Ernie Sigley's lengthy media career began when he was just 14 and landed a job as a turntable operator on Danny Webb's radio breakfast program at 3DB Melbourne in 1952.

The Gold Logie winner's move to television didn't come much later, with Sigley making his on-screen debut hosting Teenage Mailbag on the Seven Network in 1956.

READ MORE: Melbourne's tough new COVID-19 restrictions explained

He went on to host primetime's Adelaide Tonight on the Nine Network in the '60s and early '70s, before he took on his own national variety show, The Ernie Sigley Show in 1974.

It was on this show that Sigley was awarded the Gold Logie for best personality on Australian television in 1975.

The accolade was one of a staggering 21 Logies acquired by Sigley throughout his television career.

Sigley returned to radio in 1981 and went on to host 3AW's afternoon program for 12 years from 1996.

Sigley was also a singer, earning numerous number one hits — most notably with the 1974 duet 'Hey Paula' with Denise Drysdale.

She has paid tribute to Sigley, saying, "I will cherish the memories of all the mischief we got up to together. He still makes me laugh just thinking about him. Love and respect, dear Ernie."

A massive $350,000 worth of fines are expected to be issued over an illegal engagement party held in Melbourne during coronavirus lockdown.

Premier Daniel Andrews said he is particularly "angry" and disappointed at the "selfish choices" of the 69 people who chose to defy lockdown by gathering at a Caulfield North home last week as he announced an escalation of the city's lockdown.

"I know many, many people are angry about that event. It should not have happened," Mr Andrews said.

LIVE UPDATES: Melbourne lockdown extended, curfew introduced

Tonight, the mother of the groom responded to the criticism, asking for understanding.

"We did wrong but the hate coming our way is just so mean… Look into your heart and try to find forgiveness," she said in a message.

Mr Andrews said there had been proven transmission of the virus at the party – with two COVID-19 cases having come from the gathering, leaving only the question of whether it will be deemed "a super spreader event”.

Mr Andrews said health authorities were being forced to spend "literally thousands of hours" dealing with the thousands of contacts of people who attended the party.

"That is the work they must do but it is all entirely preventable," he said.

"All of us have to make choices to limit the spread and not make selfish choices that add to it."

Mr Andrews said the party attendees' decisions also detracted and devalued the amazing work that millions of Victorians were doing to slow the spread of the Delta outbreak.

READ MORE: ACT lockdown extended by two weeks after 19 new cases recorded

Chief Police Commissioner Shane Patton slammed the party as "absolutely outrageous".

Commissioner Patton said he expected every partygoer, excluding children, to be handed a $5000 fine.

"There has to be consequences, so many people are doing the right thing and deferring their events," he said.

"That is why we are enforcing on this one. I did the maths, if you take off a few for each child, it will be over $350,000 of fines."

"That's an expensive engagement party."

A neighbour of the party hosts told 9News she was "very upset" by her neighbours' actions, saying it made her feel "very shameful and embarrassed".

A video of the party, showing dozens of people packed inside the private residence in Caulfield North, has been circulating on social media.

In the clip a man can be seen appearing to give an engagement speech and joking that the gathering was legal because it was a group therapy session.

Laughter from the crowd, which allegedly included a number of medical professionals, is heard before he thanks guests for attending

Melbourne's Lord Mayor Sally Capp earlier told Today the party was "incredibly disappointing and selfish".

"The fact that somebody has organised an engagement party and found it funny to be laughing at the illegal nature of that is incredibly disappointing and selfish," Ms Capp said.

With the party having included a number of members of the Jewish community, leaders of the community have faced backlash over the event.

Daniel Aghion, President of the Jewish Community Council of Victoria, said his community was disappointed about the breach of restrictions, and had as a whole been very compliant with the lockdown.

"The community itself has been doing the hard yards," he said.

Mr Aghion said decisions to attend the party had nothing to do with religion.

The premier today also said the party was not reflective of the actions of the Jewish community in general.

Mr Andrews said the engagement party was just one example of many lockdown breaches that had been taking place, furthering Melbourne's lockdown.

Commissioner Patton said the number of breaches was "ridiculous" and police would be actively fining Victorians over them, referencing a Richmond pub crawl that occurred on Saturday, a Southbank dinner party and a Mornington dance party planned for the weekend with 1000 invitees.

He said incidents of people sitting in the street drinking were unacceptable and had to stop.

You can find out more information on the new restrictions announced here.

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