11:52 (GMT+4) Two men were arrested after the car in which they were travelling crashed into pedestrians on a busy Melbourne street Thursday, leaving up to 19 people injured, Associated Press reports.
The motive of the incident was not clear immediately. Sky News reported police arrested the driver of the white Suzuki SUV that plowed into the crowd and another man who was in the vehicle with him.
Sky News said the driver was of Middle Eastern appearance and that he was wrestled to the ground and handcuffed after his vehicle crashed into a bollard by a cable car stop around 4:40 p.m.
Witnesses told Sky News the car ran a red light, speeded up and struck pedestrians on Flinders Street in the Melbourne central business district.
"As it (the car) approached this intersection ... it just mowed everybody down, people were flying everywhere," one witness who identified herself only as Sue told radio station 3AW.
Victorian state police said in a statement they had "saturated the ... area in the vicinity of Flinders, Elizabeth and Swanston streets to ensure community safety."
The area was busy with Christmas shoppers at the time of the incident.
10:49 (GMT+4) Australian police said on Thursday they have arrested the driver of a vehicle that plowed into pedestrians at a crowded intersection in the southern city of Melbourne, with as many as 12 people injured, Reuters reports.
Police in Australia’s second-largest city did not give any possible motive for the incident, which had chilling echoes of a similar case when four people were killed and more than 20 injured in the same city in January.
Ambulance Victoria said in a statement it was assessing 12 people at the scene. Two people had been taken to hospital, including a pre-school child with a head injury.
Australian media outlets put the number of injured between 5 and 16, although police had not yet put a figure on how many people had been hurt. Major streets in cities such as Melbourne and Sydney have been packed with holiday shoppers this week.
“Extent of injuries are not known at this stage,” Victorian state police said of Thursday’s incident on their official Twitter account.
Police said the January incident was not terror-related, although it led to Melbourne and other cities ramping up security measures in pedestrian areas in major cities.
That incident followed a series of terror-related attacks in Europe where vehicles were used to mow down pedestrians.
