Yahoo News Melbourne attacker ploughed into crowd of pedestrians because of 'treatment of Muslims'
A man ploughed a car into pedestrians in Melbourne, leaving more than a dozen injured, because of the “treatment of Muslims”, police said.
Some 19 people were wounded, three of whom remain in a critical condition, after the suspect – named as 32-year-old Saeed Noori – allegedly drove a car at pedestrians outside Flinders Street station on Thursday.
Police have stressed that no terrorist links have been found during initial investigations but said Noori, an Australian citizen of Afghan heritage, had a history of mental illness and drug abuse.
Victoria Police acting commissioner Shane Patton said officers had spoken to him in hospital and also spoke to his family on Thursday evening.
He said: “During that (questioning) he made utterances, talked about dreams and voices but nonetheless did attribute his actions he said to the way that Muslim people are being treated, so based on that we haven’t ruled anything out.”
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“Obviously we’ve done search warrants last night and we haven’t found anything at all to indicate his linkage or involvement with any type of extremism, with any terrorist organisation or anything of a terrorist nature.
“So given the mental illness background and everything we need to step carefully and the investigation is ongoing.”
Witnesses described seeing people “flying everywhere” as the car was driven at speed along Flinders Street at around 4.30pm local time.
Lachlan Read told the Herald Sun the incident lasted about 15 seconds.
“It was bang, bang, bang. It was just one after the other,” the 20-year-old said. “The last bang the car stopped. There were bodies on the ground and people running up to them – it was mayhem.”
Of the victims, nine were foreign nationals including a 25-year-old Irish woman who is in a stable condition in hospital.
Two men from South Korea, aged 61 and 67, are in a critical condition while a four-year-old South Korean boy, the youngest victim, is in a stable condition. The oldest victim, an 83-year-old Australian man from the city, is also in a critical condition, police said.
A Chinese national aged 24, an Indian national aged 45 and a Venezuelan national aged 40 – all men – also remain in hospital.
An Italian man aged 25 and a man from New Zealand aged 43 were taken to hospital but have since been discharged.
