Driver arrested after hitting pedestrians in Melbourne crash

Australian police stand near a crashed vehicle after they arrested the driver of the vehicle that ploughed into pedestrians. [Photo: Courtesy]

A car deliberately plowed into pedestrians at a crowded intersection in the Australian city of Melbourne on Thursday, injuring 14 people.

Police said that they had arrested the driver and a second man.

Police said the motive for the incident was not known but it had chilling echoes of several attacks by Islamist militants in various parts of the world over the past two years.

In January, four people were killed and more than 20 injured when a man deliberately drove into pedestrians at a spot just a few hundred meters away from the Thursday incident, though that incident was not terrorism-related.

A witness told the Australian Broadcasting Corp the vehicle was traveling at 80 to 100 kph (50-62 mph).

“There was no breaking or any slowing down at all,” said Jim Stoupas, who said he was standing outside his donut shop when the car crashed into the people, one after another.

“All you could hear was just ‘bang bang bang bang bang’,” he said.

Police said they had arrested two men but that they had not been charged.

“We believe based on what we’ve seen that it was a deliberate act,” Victoria Police Commander Russell Barrett told reporters.

“The motivations are unknown,” Barrett said.

The Victoria State ambulance service said it had taken 13 people to hospital, including a pre-school child with a serious head injury.

Police did not identify the two arrested men but pictures taken at the scene and posted on social media showed a bearded man in a flannel shirt sitting on the footpath and talking to police.