Irish woman ‘stable’ after Melbourne attack
AN Irish woman is still recovering in hospital after she was among more than a dozen injured when a driver ploughed into pedestrians in Melbourne.
The woman (25) is understood to be in a “stable” condition in hospital after the horrifying incident in the Flinders Street area of the city.
The driver of the car attributed his actions to the “treatment of Muslims”, police said.
However, officers stressed no terrorist links had been found during their initial investigations. Some 19 people were wounded, three of whom remain in a critical condition, after a car was driven at pedestrians outside Flinders Street station on Thursday.
The area surrounding the major transport hub was busy with Christmas shoppers during the first week of the school summer holidays.
Police have said the suspect, reportedly named Saeed Noori, a 32-year-old Australian citizen of Afghan heritage, had a history of mental illness and drug abuse.
Nine of the victims were foreign nationals, police said.
Two men from South Korea are in a critical condition, while a four-year-old South Korean boy, the youngest victim, is in a stable condition.
A Chinese national (24), an Indian national (45), and a Venezuelan national (40) – all men – also remain in hospital.
An Italian man (25) and a man from New Zealand (43) were taken to hospital but have since been discharged.
The oldest victim, an 83-yearold Australian man from the city, is also in a critical condition, police said.
The suspect was admitted to hospital in the wake of the incident but has now been discharged and is in custo- dy awaiting questioning once “medically cleared”.
Victoria Police acting commissioner Shane Patton said officers had spoken to him in hospital as investigators carried out search warrants and also spoke to his family on Thursday evening.
“During that (questioning) he made utterances, talked about dreams and voices but nonetheless did attribute his actions he said to the way that Muslim people are being treated, so based on that we haven’t ruled anything out,” he said.
“Obviously we’ve done search warrants last night and we haven’t found anything at all to indicate his linkage or involvement with any type of extremism, with any terrorist organisation or anything of a terrorist nature.
“So given the mental illness background and everything we need to step carefully and the investigation is ongoing,” he said.
The suspect was known to the police, having been convicted of an assault in 2010, and is understand to have been on a mental health plan and receiving treatment.
Lachlan Read told the ‘Herald Sun’ the incident lasted about 15 seconds. “It was bang, bang, bang. It was just one after the other.
“The last bang the car stopped,” the 20-year-old said. “There were bodies on the ground and people running up to them – it was mayhem.”