MELBOURNE: A car ploughed into a crowd in Australia's
second-largest city on Thursday in what police said was a “deliberate
act” that left more than a dozen people injured, some of them seriously.
Witnesses said people were thrown through the air after
being hit by the vehicle, which did not appear to be trying to stop as
it “mowed everybody down”.
Victoria state police said
they had arrested the driver of the car after it “collided with a number
of pedestrians” in downtown Melbourne at a busy intersection just after
4.30pm local time.
A second man was also arrested “We
believe based on what we have seen that it is a deliberate act. The
motivations are unknown,” Victoria Police's Commander Russell Barrett
told reporters in Melbourne.
Paramedics were “treating and transporting to hospital” 13 people, with some seriously hurt, ambulance officials said.
Sky News Australia reported that a pre-school child with a head injury was taken to hospital in a serious condition.
Citing
witnesses, Sky said a white Suzuki Grand Vitara with two men inside
drove into the crowd, with no signs the vehicle made an effort to slow
down.
Local media showed photos of one man wearing a
long-sleeve top being dragged from a car, while a bearded second man
wearing a red checked shirt was seen handcuffed and sitting on the
ground.
In a tweet, police appealed to members of the
public to upload any images they might have of the incident to a cloud
address to help assist with their investigation.
A witness, named only as Sue, told Melbourne radio station 3AW that she heard screams and 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.” Another witness, John, told ABC Radio Melbourne that he saw
a “SUV coming at high speed”.
“(I) really just heard the collision with people with bags and what must be shopping trolleys — and I hope not prams,” he said.
“I've really never seen anything like this before and I haven't stopped shaking.”
The
intersection is one of Melbourne's busiest, a local shop owner told
national broadcaster ABC, and is particularly crowded at this time of
the year ahead of the Christmas break, with school holidays under way.
Measures against vehicle attacks
The incident came months after a car mowed down pedestrians in Melbourne's busiest mall in January, killing six people.
The
driver, whose case is still being heard in court, had been pursued by
police prior to the rampage after he had allegedly stabbed his brother.
The
attack, which was not terror-related, shocked Australians and took
place near Melbourne Park where top tennis stars were playing in 2017's
opening Grand Slam.
Canberra has become increasingly
worried about homegrown extremism and officials say they have prevented
13 terror attacks on home soil in the past few years.
The
Australian government in August unveiled a strategy aimed at preventing
vehicle terror attacks carried out in crowded public places.
Suggested
steps include deterrent options like fencing and closed circuit
cameras, and delaying approaches such as trees and bollards to slow down
vehicles.
Melbourne has also been installing a public
siren system and more security cameras to warn people of a possible
terrorist attack or other serious threats.
But the Age
newspaper said the warning sirens had not been activated for Thursday's
incident, and police did not appear to enacted counter-terrorism
lock-down strategies either.
While there was not yet any
clear motive for Thursday's incident, there have been several cases of
vehicles being used to deliberately maim and kill.
Truck attack
The most deadly such case was in the southern French city of
Nice on July 14, 2016, when 31-year-old Tunisian Mohamed
Lahouaiej-Bouhlel ploughed a 19-tonne truck down a beachside promenade,
killing 86 people and injuring hundreds more.
Almost
exactly one year ago, on December 12, another Tunisian national,
24-year-old Anis Amri, hijacked a truck and slammed it into crowds of
people at a Christmas market in Berlin.
A total of 12
people died in that attack with dozens injured. Amri was shot dead four
days later in Milan, with the Islamic State group claiming
responsibility.
More recently, eight people were killed
in New York when a pick-up truck was driven into cyclists and
pedestrians, in what was described as the first deadly “act of terror”
in the city since the September 11, 2001, attacks.
Other deadly attacks using vehicles have taken place this year in London, Stockholm and Barcelona.