A teenager in an undisclosed East Arnhem community who allegedly threw spears at a police car suffered undisclosed injuries in the incident and is now facing assault and weapons charges, NT Police said.

Police had originally reported the incident occurred in West Arnhem, but later changed that to East Arnhem, but still would not disclose the community.

Senior Sergeant Michael Milde said around 10:30am Wednesday, officers were investigating unlawful entries in a residential area in West Arnhem that occurred overnight when a 17-year-old male armed with spears “confronted” the police officers outside a residence.

Details of the confrontation between the teen and the officers were sparse, and it remains unclear how the teen suffered injuries, but Sgt Milde indicated an officer was assaulted but did not suffer any injuries.

He said the teenager threw spears at the police car causing damage, and then ran off.

Police later discovered that a 19-year-old male had allegedly been involved in a disturbance with the 17-year-old involving “edged weapons” prior to their arrival.

Both were arrested and the 17-year-old received treatment for minor injuries.

“This was an extremely dangerous incident which had the potential to cause serious harm to all persons involved,” Sgt Milde said.

The 19-year-old was charged with being armed with “offensive and controlled weapons in a public place” and will appear in court “at a later date”, police said on Wednesday. They later withdrew the charges against the 19-year-old.

The 17-year-old will be dealt with under the provisions of the Youth Justice Act, police said.

Youth diversion is for people aged between 10 and 17 years of age and may include a written warning, a conference involving the family, the victim and the offender, or referrals to counselling for their behaviour.

The offenders can only be in diversion programs twice and if they break the law a third time, they will have to front the Children’s Court, unless there are exceptional circumstances.