A Victoria Police investigator at the scene of a shooting outside Love Machine nightclub in Prahran, Melbourne on April 14, 2019. Photo: Reuters
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https://scmp.com/news/asia/australasia/article/3006073/four-injured-australia-after-melbourne-nightclub-shooting Australasia
One dead, three injured in Australia after shooting at Love Machine nightclub Melbourne
- Police said three people were wounded and one was still in critical condition
A Victoria Police investigator at the scene of a shooting outside Love Machine nightclub in Prahran, Melbourne on April 14, 2019. Photo: Reuters
A shooting outside a popular Melbourne nightclub in Australia early on Sunday left one man dead and another fighting for his life, police said.
Police said four men were taken to hospital – two in a critical condition – after “multiple people were shot” outside the Love Machine club in the trendy inner-city suburb of Prahran early on Sunday morning. The victims were said to be three security guards and a patron waiting to get in.
“It would appear that shots have been discharged from a car in this area into a crowd that was standing outside the nightclub,” Victoria Police Inspector Andrew Stamper told reporters.
“This is just a horrendous act. It’s a busy nightclub, one of the main nightclubs in Melbourne in one of the main entertainment precincts in Melbourne.”
A 37-year-old security guard died in hospital and a 28-year-old man was in a critical condition. Two others aged 29 and 50 had non-life threatening injuries, police said.
Police were also appealing for anyone with video footage or information to come forward.
Police were also probing whether a black Porsche seen leaving the area and later found burnt out in another suburb was linked to the shooting.
The Seven Network TV station says a security guard at the club had no idea a shooting had happened and there was no panic inside the venue, which was still open.
Investigators were probing links to motorcycle gangs, The Age newspaper in Melbourne reported.
Police were expected to provide updates later on Sunday.
Stamper stressed that there was “nothing to indicate” that the shooting was part of a “broader agenda”.
The incident came after a spate of shootings in Melbourne in March that left five people dead in four separate incidents. Two of the incidents were believed to be gang-related.
Mass shootings are rare in Australia, which has strict firearms laws introduced in 1996 after 35 people were killed by a gunman in Port Arthur.
A murder-suicide last year which left seven members of a family dead in Western Australia was the country’s worst mass shooting since the Port Arthur attack.
Additional reporting by Associated Press