3 killed, 20 hurt after car strikes pedestrians in Melbourne
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SYDNEY, Australia — A man deliberately drove into a street crowded with pedestrians in Australia’s second-largest city on Friday, killing at least three people and injuring 20 others, police said. Officials said the incident had no links to terrorism.
The chaos began in the early afternoon, after a man was seen driving in erratic circles in the middle of a major intersection in downtown Melbourne. The driver then turned onto the Bourke Street Mall, a pedestrian-only road, deliberately colliding with pedestrians before continuing onto a sidewalk and hitting several other people, Victoria state Police Acting Commander Stuart Bateson said.
The man was arrested at the scene and there was no further threat to the public, Bateson said. Police believe the incident is somehow connected to a stabbing that had occurred in the city earlier in the day.
The incident comes amid global concern over extremists using vehicles to strike crowds, following truck attacks in Berlin and Nice, France last year. Bateson said the Melbourne incident had no links to terrorism.
