Ashes war erupts as Barmy Army cops the blame over disgraceful booze-fuelled scenes during First Test - but did an Aussie sporting tradition REALLY trigger the wild behaviour?

Cricket fans from Australia and England have clashed online over footage showing spectators throwing beer cups and trays in wild scenes at the first Ashes Test in Perth.

Videos posted to X and Instagram show large numbers of supporters throwing beer cups and beer trays at each other as they risked being thrown out of the venue. 

The scenes prompted officials at Perth Stadium to post the following warning to the ground's big screen: 'Fans are reminded that throwing items is prohibited. If you throw, you go.'

English and Aussie fans were also seen making long stacks of empty cups known as 'beer snakes', with security at Aussie cricket grounds notorious for confiscating the items and even kicking out the fans who make them.

The snakes have become an Aussie sporting tradition despite incidents like guards evicting fans from the MCG for building them in 2022.

On Saturday, a video shared by former sports reporter turned content creator Josh Garlepp on X showed fans in two separate stands throwing cups and trays, along with the caption, 'The barmy army are trashing the place tearing each other limb from limb.'

The post kicked off a debate over which set of fans were responsible. 

'I was in the top tiers and can tell you it was the Aussies lobbing the cardboard trays because their beer snakes were confiscated,' one commenter wrote.

'I was there not sitting with the barmy army. Loads of stuff came cascading down from the locals above us,' another cricket fan added.

'It was the whole stadium. I was there,' an English supporter commented, with another spectator writing, 'It was everyone, not just the BA [Barmy Army].'

'That was not the barmy army fans you t**t. Plenty of Aussies. Happened because they stopped their beer towers,' wrote another fan.

Australians chimed in on the argument with comments like, 'English fans are the worst lot. Sore farking losers,' and, 'That's English culture.'

An Instagram video posted by former AFL star Daniel Gorringe showed spectators throwing cardboard trays from the first tier of the stands onto the fans below, with the caption, 'Aussies giving it back to the Barmy Army (stop singing songs about Steve Smith crying)'.

The vision shows the area around the seats at ground level littered with the trays, with so many thrown that they are piling up in the aisles.

English flags are seen on the fence at the front of the area, indicating that a lot of Three Lions fans were seated there - and some of them have built their own beer snake, which is also visible in the footage.

One of the comments on the video read, 'The whole ground started throwing trays at this stage, it was bloody great.' 

Content creators Those Carter Boys - who are the brothers of Aussie Olympic gold medallist Kaylee McKeown - posted vision to Instagram of a huge beer snake that stretched for more than 20 rows, almost covering the entire length of one stand.

Western Australian Police said the only arrest made during the Test was related to a traffic offence outside the ground. 

The scenes came as the English fans witnessed their team suffer a complete meltdown after going to the lunch break with a lead of 99 runs and the loss of just one wicket.

Skipper Ben Stokes's men then went from 1-65 to 6-88 in a stunning collapse, ending up all out for 164. 

That meant the Aussies had to chase the highest innings total of the match - 205 - for victory on what had proved a treacherous strip for batters.

However, Travis Head then pulled out an innings that will go down in Ashes folklore, smashing the attack for four sixes and 16 boundaries as he raced to a sensational 123 runs from just 83 balls.