Aussie tourists pepper-sprayed

Two men were pepper-sprayed in Queenstown last night.

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Two drunken Aussie mates were pepper-sprayed in Queenstown last night.

Senior constable Chris Blackford, of Queenstown, said the two 20-year-old men were arrested in The Mall at 11.50pm after one of the pair removed his shirt and smashed a Readings Cinema window.

The man was so intoxicated that police needed help from bouncers to restrain him. He was subdued only after being pepper-sprayed.

Blackford said the man argued with his mate, who tried to calm him down, but the grossly intoxicated man pulled his shirt off, lashed out and kicked at the cinema door before bouncers and police arrived.

As he was being subdued his mate ran over and he, too, was pepper-sprayed.

Both men spent the night in custody and were charged with wilful damage, resisting police and disorderly behaviour likely in the circumstances to cause violence.

It follows other incidents involving Australians on holiday in Queenstown, including a man arrested for eating someone else's pie, but police earlier this week told The Southland Times they were not singling out bad behaviour of tourists from across the ditch.

- © Fairfax NZ News