Irish person injured in Melbourne car attack
History of drug use and mental illness
AN IRISH person has been injured in Melbourne after a driver in an SUV ploughed through a crowded street.
The Department of Foreign Affairs last night confirmed they were aware that an Irish person had been hurt and are ‘providing consular assistance’ to the individual.
However, information about their age and gender remained unclear last night.
At least 19 people are believed to have been injured in the attack. Australian police say the perpetrator is an Australian citizen of Afghan descent with a history of drug use and mental illness. The 32-year-old, who was not identified, has no known links to terrorism.
Police said the individual was arrested and had been known to them for minor assault.
The motive for the attack was not immediately known.
‘We don’t, at this time, have any evidence or any intelligence to indicate there’s a connection with terrorism,’ said Shane Patton, acting commissioner of the Victoria police.
The streets outside the city’s Flinders Street railway station were crowded with shoppers when the white Suzuki ran a red light and sped up to slam into pedestrians crossing the road, before crashing into a barrier.
State premier Daniel Andrews said 19 people had been hospitalised. Four were in critical condition and were believed to include a pre-school child.
Paul Cahalane, an Irishman who witnessed the incident, described the terror of seeing people ‘running everywhere’ and ‘screaming’.
The 25-year-old told Mailonline he was on the way to the gym when the incident happened.
‘I had my headphones in, music playing, when I heard a bang behind me,’ Mr Cahalane said. ‘[It was] a thud, just a solid thud.’ He said he was frozen in shock, telling reporters: ‘I didn’t even run. I was just in shock. And then, then I [came to] the realisation that there was a van or a Jeep... on the other side of the road. The front of it was smashed to pieces.’
He told the Irish Daily Mail that the first thing he did was ring his parents at home in Blackrock, Cork, to tell them he was safe.
This isn’t the first time his family has been embroiled in a terror crisis: his sister became caught up in September’s London Tube attack at Parsons Green.
‘You don’t fully understand the pain and the pain it causes until it’s right in front of you,’ he said
Early reports said there were two men in the car, but police chief Mr Patton confirmed the suspect was alone.
Confusion had arisen when a second man was seen being apprehended alongside the driver.
Mr Patton said he was a 24-yearold man seen filming the incident on his mobile phone and found carrying a bag with three knives.