Attack in heart of city was an act of terror

From the time we can walk we are taught our first lesson in civility – that green means go and red means stop.

Implicit in the lesson is that everyone else will obey the rule and when we step out on the road, the strangers in the vehicles just metres away will wait their turn.

The corner of Elizabeth and Flinders streets is as peculiar to Melbourne as hook turns and giant tram stops in the middle of the road.

Forty minutes before a man in a white Suzuki SUV ploughed into pedestrians, I crossed the triangular intersection with hundreds of others who, like a giant school of tuna, darted in their own direction – somehow managing to avoid contact.

For the past 11 months, since the terrible day six people were killed and dozens seriously injured by a lone driver who ploughed into pedestrians in Bourke St, we have been trying to protect the public from random killers.

There has been extensive planning – a loudspeaker warning system and the use of strategically placed bollards in direct response to the January 20 attack.

But it is the lack of planning that perhaps saved so many lives.

Flinders St in peak hour, or indeed any time in daylight hours, is hopelessly choked and is next to useless as a CBD thoroughfare.

And so when the man in the SUV pulled out to strike pedestrians in what police say was a deliberate act, he was not able to reach a more deadly speed.

Even so 19 people were left injured.

In the immediate aftermath, as always, it is average citizen and first responders who rise to the moment. Such as the unarmed, offduty sergeant who arrested the suspect within seconds.

Or members of the public who stepped out to control crowds and give emergency vehicles access to what had become a mobile casualty ward on the street.

In the confusion it became clear police were treating the incident as a lone-wolf attack, as the city was not locked down in the hours that followed.

For in more co-ordinated actions overseas there has often been a second or third vehicle involved.

The driver, Saeed Noori, 32, was wrestled to the ground and, as pictures show, police went from arresting the suspect to caring for him, checking his pulse, before he was taken to hospital to receive medical treatment.

Just as when a 15-year-old disturbed teenager tried to mow down people in a four-wheel drive in the city on AFL grand final day he was safely arrested and not shot.

Police say Thursday’s act was not terror-related and that Noori has a history of violence, mental health issues and drug abuse.

But regardless of his background it was an act of terror, designed to kill, disrupt and create mass panic.

What it does mean is that he was not on a watchlist, was unknown to counter-terror police and was not seen as an immediate threat.

And it shows our emergency terror planning works – with heavily armed Critical Incident Response Team police at the scene within seconds.

What we do know is there is a clear link between mental health and would-be mass killers, whether they cloak their actions behind deadly political doggerel or not.

Which is why just two months ago Victoria established the $30 million Fixed Threat Assessment Centre to identify potential lone- wolf attackers such as Noori.

The unit combines counterterror police and mental health experts, in the hope of intervening in high-risk cases before there is an attack. Noori was not on the list.

In a brief chat to police he rambled about much, including revealing bizarre fantasies and the alleged poor treatment of Muslims. And he was clearly showing signs of a deep and dangerous psychotic episode.

If his aim was to bask in infamy he will fail. There will be a brief media frenzy to learn about his background before he slips back into mediocrity.

Soon we will remember the incident but not the name as he is finally dealt with by the system and slips from sight.

And if his aim was to paralyse Melbourne he failed again. Just hours after the crime scene had been cauterised the city was abuzz with diners and pre-Christmas revellers.

People were wandering, laughing, holding hands and enjoying themselves, seemingly unaffected by the attack that had occurred a few hundred metres away.

They queued at taxi ranks patiently waiting their turn in an act of civility – the sort that makes big cities work.

Sitting discreetly in the shadows were Critical Incident Response Team vehicles – ready to respond within seconds to any emerging threats.

By Friday the peculiar Flinders and Elizabeth St intersection was in full flow with tuna-pedestrians going about their business. The shoppers, sightseers and workers had returned, apparently unaffected by the actions of one disturbed man. – Fairfax