Police were forced to flee from a group in Wadeye after an officer was hit in the head with a rock yesterday while officers were responding to a man being attacked with an axe, in more violence in the remote community, NT Police have said.

Commander Kylie Anderson said around 9:45pm on Thursday police went to deal with the axe attack on the man in Wadeye but when they arrived “an unknown group” allegedly threw rocks at police.

“A female officer was struck in the forehead, suffering a 2cm laceration,” she said.

“Police withdrew from the location, and returned a short time later with additional support and dispersed the group. An injured male was located with a laceration to his right leg.”

Commander Anderson said both the man and the officer were treated in the Wadeye clinic.

However, she gave no details of any arrests or possible charges, or how many people were in the “group” and what they had been doing.

In July, Superintendent Kirk Pennuto said in a statement that over the previous few months the remote community had been the site of “intermittent disturbances” resulting in one death, numerous minor injuries, property damage and the displacement of a large number of people, with 25 men arrested for allegedly being involved in riots in the troubled community.

The majority of public disclosures by police about Wadeye have come after questions have been put to them by the NT Independent, or following NT Independent articles with revelations about the violence and extent of the displacement in the town, which federal NT Labor Senator Malarndirri McCarthy called a “humanitarian situation”.

The NT Independent’s reporting on the violence in the town began in late April, when this paper reported NT Police continued to suppress information about violence in Wadeye, issuing a press release an hour-and-a-half after being sent questions about the ongoing rioting, but which lacked vital information about bloodshed in the community and the reasons why the Territory Response Group had not been sent in to restore public safety.

By late May, the NT Independent had reported sources who had said more than 400 people were displaced, with hundreds living in tents on the edge of town too scared to buy food; the school had been closed after a teacher was assaulted, a man was speared in the leg and the Health Clinic attacked, children were walking around with homemade tomahawks, a worker’s camp was ram-raided, and at least 45 houses were left unliveable due to damage from riots and ongoing violence.

None of this had been made public by the NT Government or NT Police.

Around that time, police issued a media statement in which Senior Sergeant Bradley Fox said about 300 people gathered on the oval, to fight using blunt and edged weapons and had to be stopped with chemicals.

During June Estimates hearings, Territory Families and Housing Department housing operations deputy chief executive Brent Warren said 545 people had been made homeless, with close to half the houses in the community in some way damaged, or 125 out of 288 public houses. NT Police had previously said 37 houses had been burnt.

Mr Warren said out of the 125, 80 homes had been assessed for damage, with an “early estimate” of $4 – $5 million to fix them.

“At the moment, by our count, there’s 545 people, adults and children who have been displaced, or who have chosen not to stay in town while the troubles are occurring,” he said.

The NT Independent also reported in late June that Mitchell’s Adventure in Berrimah had been broken into for the third time in the month, with thieves interrupted soon after the break-in, after smashing knife display cases and attempting to steal a crossbow.

The week before that, crossbows and bows were stolen in one of two ram raids on the Darwin business that had been used to shoot at least four people in Wadeye, sources had said. Eight bows and four crossbows were stolen on June 19, with eight bows and two crossbows stolen on June 2, along with about 200 bolts and arrows in total.

None of the thefts or the shootings had been made public by the NT Police media unit.

On Friday, Commander Anderson said Wadeye police had been working extraordinarily hard over an extended period to keep community residents safe.

“The fact that one of those residents chose to deliberately harm an officer is completely reprehensible and police are currently working to identify all those involved,” she said.

“All emergency service workers should be able to turn up to work confident that the community will keep them safe as they serve and protect that very same community.”