Carnage as SUV flattens pedestrians
AUSTRALIA: Seven people, including a young child, are in hospital and 12 others were treated by paramedics after a car ploughed into pedestrians in central Melbourne yesterday.
Police arrested the driver of the SUV. An officer at the scene described it as a terrorist incident, but this had not been confirmed.
The child that was hit suffered a head injury and was taken to Royal Children’s Hospital in a serious condition. Three patients were taken to the Alfred Hospital, and another three to Royal Melbourne Hospital. Their conditions were not reported.
The vehicle ran a red light just after 4.30pm local time, witnesses said.
Sue from Walker’s Doughnuts on Elizabeth St 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.’’
Vince, who works in a shop at Flinders Street Station, said he rushed to the scene before emergency services arrived. He said onlookers were quick to lend a hand.
Dozens of police cars, fire trucks and ambulances descended on Flinders St. Police cordoned off Flinders St from Queens St to Swanston St.
Hundreds of people milled around the edges of the crash scene, with police quelling a group in the crowd calling out that the incident was a terrorist attack. Footage from the scene showed people surrounding the white SUV.