Numerous people hurt as car hits crowd in Melbourne
A car ploughed into a crowd in Australia’s second-largest city on Thursday, injuring at least a dozen people, some of them seriously, officials said.
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 before 5pm local time (0600 GMT). Police did not immediately say whether the driver had acted deliberately. Paramedics were “treating and transporting to hospital” 13 people, with some seriously injured after the collision on Flinders Street between Elizabeth and Swanston streets, Ambulance Victoria added.
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 SUV with two men inside drove into the crowd, with no signs the vehicle made an effort to slow down, but later crashed into a bollard.
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, Sue, told Melbourne radio station 3AW that she heard screams and saw “people flying everywhere.”