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MELBOURNE - Up to 16 people have been injured after a car drove into a crowd in Melbourne's central business district on Thursday (Dec 21).
The white SUV "collided with a number of pedestrians" on the corner of Flinders and Elizabeth streets, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.
It said up to 16 people have been injured, including a young child with a head injury. The child has been taken to Royal Children's Hospital in a serious condition, the report said.
Two other people have been taken to hospital while paramedics are assessing 12 others at the scene, where dozens of police cars, fire trucks and ambulances have arrived.
Police have arrested the driver as well as a second man, Australian media reported. An officer at the scene has described it as a terrorist incident, although police in Australia's second-largest city have not given any possible motive for the incident.
Images from the scene show a number of people lying on the ground close to a large white vehicle. Hundreds of people are milling around the crash scene, with police quelling a group in the crowd calling out the incident as a terrorist attack.
An eyewitness identified only as Sue from Walker's Doughnuts in Elizabeth Street told radio station 3AW that she heard screams before she saw "people flying everywhere".
"We could hear this noise, as we looked left, we saw this white car, it just mowed everybody down," she said.
"People are flying everywhere. We heard thump, thump. People are running everywhere."
The incident occurred shortly before the evening rush hour in Melbourne, and in a week when major cities in Australia have been packed with holiday shoppers.
One distressed woman carrying Christmas presents and wrapping paper could be seen crying as police escorted her into an unmarked police car, the Herald said.
Sections of the city's public transport system are in lockdown, with Metro Trains urging commuters to avoid Flinders Street.
The incident echoes a similar case in Melbourne in January, when four people were killed and more than 20 injured.
Police said the January incident was not terror-related, although it led to Melbourne and other cities ramping up security measures in pedestrian areas, Reuters said.
That incident followed a series of terror-related attacks in Europe where vehicles were used to mow down pedestrians.
This story is developing.
http://www.straitstimes.com/asia/australianz/car-drives-into-crowd-in-melbourne-driver-arrested
The white SUV "collided with a number of pedestrians" on the corner of Flinders and Elizabeth streets, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.
It said up to 16 people have been injured, including a young child with a head injury. The child has been taken to Royal Children's Hospital in a serious condition, the report said.
Two other people have been taken to hospital while paramedics are assessing 12 others at the scene, where dozens of police cars, fire trucks and ambulances have arrived.
Police have arrested the driver as well as a second man, Australian media reported. An officer at the scene has described it as a terrorist incident, although police in Australia's second-largest city have not given any possible motive for the incident.
Images from the scene show a number of people lying on the ground close to a large white vehicle. Hundreds of people are milling around the crash scene, with police quelling a group in the crowd calling out the incident as a terrorist attack.
An eyewitness identified only as Sue from Walker's Doughnuts in Elizabeth Street told radio station 3AW that she heard screams before she saw "people flying everywhere".
"We could hear this noise, as we looked left, we saw this white car, it just mowed everybody down," she said.
"People are flying everywhere. We heard thump, thump. People are running everywhere."
The incident occurred shortly before the evening rush hour in Melbourne, and in a week when major cities in Australia have been packed with holiday shoppers.
One distressed woman carrying Christmas presents and wrapping paper could be seen crying as police escorted her into an unmarked police car, the Herald said.
Sections of the city's public transport system are in lockdown, with Metro Trains urging commuters to avoid Flinders Street.
The incident echoes a similar case in Melbourne in January, when four people were killed and more than 20 injured.
Police said the January incident was not terror-related, although it led to Melbourne and other cities ramping up security measures in pedestrian areas, Reuters said.
That incident followed a series of terror-related attacks in Europe where vehicles were used to mow down pedestrians.
This story is developing.
http://www.straitstimes.com/asia/australianz/car-drives-into-crowd-in-melbourne-driver-arrested
