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Australia: Car plows into people in Melbourne, 19 injured

Police officers stand guard as members of the public stand behind a police tape after the arrest of the driver of a vehicle that plowed into pedestrians at a crowded intersection in central Melbourne, Australia, on December 21, 2017. (Photo by Reuters)

A vehicle has mowed down pedestrians in Australia’s second-largest city of Melbourne, leaving over a dozen people injured, some of them seriously, official reports say.

The incident took place in downtown Melbourne at a busy intersection just before 5 pm local time (0600 GMT) on Thursday.

Media reports said up to 19 pedestrians were being treated for injuries, 12 of them in hospitals, including a pre-school aged child in serious condition with head injuries.

Police said they had arrested the driver of the car after it “collided with a number of pedestrians.”

Sky News Australia, citing witnesses at the scene, said a white Suzuki SUV with two men inside had driven into the crowd with no signs of making an effort to slow down and had later crashed into a cable car stop.

Police and emergency personnel work at the scene where a car ran over pedestrians in Melbourne, December 21, 2017. (Photo by AFP)

“We could hear this noise, as we looked left, we saw this white car, it just mowed everybody down,” a witness said. “People were flying everywhere. We heard thump, thump. People were running everywhere.”

Police officers and security guards present at the scene described the accident as a terrorist act but that has not been confirmed by the authorities, yet, and am investigation is underway.

In January, a driver rammed his car into pedestrians in Melbourne’s busiest mall, killing six people, including a 10-year-old girl and a three-month-old baby. At least 30 people sustained injuries in that attack. The driver, named in reports as Dimitrious Gargasoulas, was charged with six counts of murder, along with 28 counts of attempted murder.


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