DevelopingFour dead, 15 injured as car strikes pedestrians in Melbourne
Heavily armed officers were deployed on the streets in the heart of the city, which is hosting the Australian Open tennis tournament
The man arrested after allegedly running over and killing four pedestrians in central Melbourne on Friday and injuring 15 others has a history of violence and may have stabbed his brother hours earlier, police said.
Witnesses described “bodies flying through the air” and people running out of the path of the speeding vehicle in the central area of Melbourne.
Officers eventually rammed the car and shot the 26-year-old driver in the arm, before dragging him from the vehicle.
We witnessed about half a dozen people that ricocheted off the car one way or another. I saw one person fly up almost roof level
Pursued by police cars, the man had been seen driving erratically before speeding into a shopping centre, ploughing into people, police said. A security video showed several people diving into a shop as the car raced along the pavement.
“We witnessed about half a dozen people that ricocheted off the car one way or another. I saw one person fly up almost roof level,” said 46-year-old Sharn Baylis. “You could hear the gasping and the screaming from people.”
Baylis, a tourist from the southern city of Adelaide, said she rushed across tram tracks and with other bystanders and gave cardiopulmonary resuscitation first aid to a badly hurt man who had been run over.
“I think it was pretty much in vain at that point. The seriousness of his injuries, he was probably the worst I saw.”