SYDNEY, Oct. 12 (Xinhua) -- An Australian teenager has been charged for his involvement over the "stupid" creepy clown craze, local media reported on Wednesday.
The 15-year-old teenager was arrested in Brisbane's south at 21:00 local time (AEDT) on Tuesday night after police allegedly found him standing in the street wearing a clown mask and brandishing a knife.
It's understood that he was standing outside his family's home and told police he was just trying to scare his sister.
Police has since charged the boy with public nuisance and unlawful possession of a knife and will be dealt with under the Youth Justice Act.
The charge comes after Queensland State Police Minister Bill Byrne had publicly declared war on the "disgraceful" creepy clown craze at the State Parliament on Tuesday.
Byrne said the phenomenon, where people were seen to be dressing up as clowns to frighten others, sometimes using weapons, was a drag on police resources.
Meanwhile, another terrified young boy from central Queensland has told the Australian Associated Press that he now sleeps with a knife under his bed after being followed by a machete-wielding clown.
Jaiden Crane says he was walking home from a friend's house in Gladstone in Queensland last week when he saw the clown, who chased him and scraped a machete on the ground.
"I was pretty mortified, I didn't get any sleep that night," he said.
Crane was adamant that the clown's intentions were sinister.
"I'm pretty sure if you dress up and you've got a machete, that would suggest that you would want to hurt someone pretty badly like kill them or something," he said.
Last week, a 19-year-old Perth man had allegedly scared the group of girls near a shopping centre in Northam and chased them for about 700 metres before arriving to a police station.
He has since been charged with disorderly behaviour and possession of a disguise.
The creepy clown craze which started out in the United States made its way down under last week after numerous people had reported on sightings of the evil looking clowns in Perth, Queensland, Victoria and the Australian Capital Territory.