Bourke St attacker shot by police in Melbourne dies in hospital after one killed, two injured in stabbings – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
Bourke St attacker shot by police in Melbourne dies in hospital after one killed, two injured in stabbings
Updated
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Video: Police were confronted by a knife-wielding man after responding to a car fire. (ABC News)
A man shot by police after stabbing three people in Melbourne’s Bourke Street has died in hospital.
One of the stabbing victims died of his injuries, while two are in hospital.
Police shot the man in the chest after he charged at them with the knife.
He was taken to hospital in a critical condition and kept under guard before succumbing to his injuries.
Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton told a press conference tonight the attack was being treated as an act of terrorism.
“From what we know of that individual, we are treating this as a terrorism incident.”
He said the attacker was known to “federal intelligence authorities” as well as to Victoria Police.
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“He’s known to police mainly in respect to relatives he has that are certainly persons of interest to us.
“For operational matters we now have the counter-terrorism command and the homicide squad dealing with this matter, and there are ongoing investigations being conducted by the counter-terrorism command,” he said.
Mr Ashton said police were conducting “security reassessments” in relation to several events in Melbourne scheduled for the weekend; an A-League soccer match between Melbourne Victory and Central Coast Mariners on Sunday, and Remembrance Day events.
“At this stage we’re still encouraging people to go to those events, and it’s highly likely we’ll have additional police at all of those events,” he said.
Bystanders confronted attacker with chair, shopping trolley
Witnesses told the ABC a car sped down Bourke Street and crashed after missing a tram.
Video taken by witnesses shows a car on fire in the area and bystanders using a shopping trolley and chair to confront the attacker.
The video shows the man attempting to slash police officers with a large knife before falling to the ground.
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Video: Witnesses capture a car fire on Bourke St, Melbourne (ABC News)
One witness said the driver got out of the car and threw “something like a bomb” inside before it erupted into flames.
An eyewitness said someone walked up to the alleged driver and was stabbed directly in the chest.
Witnesses said the man began randomly stabbing people in the street. Two police officers were on the scene quickly and confronted the man.
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Video: Police say one person has died after the stabbing attack. (ABC News)
Victoria Police Superintendent David Clayton said when police arrived at the scene they were confronted by a man brandishing a knife and threatening them.
“At the same time, passers-by were calling out that members of the public had been stabbed.”
In a later statement, police said the man assaulted police, fled on foot, then was shot while lunging at police with the knife.
Officers said they were initially called to a car fire around 4:20pm (AEDT).
The Metropolitan Fire Brigade said the fire was contained within 10 minutes.
Twitter: Meegan May tweets: Chaos in #bourkest as a guy seems to have set his car on fire then attacked police with a knife. Police response was swift and overwhelming. I heard at least one gunshot initially.
A caller to ABC Radio Melbourne, Meegan, said she saw the incident from a tram.
She said she saw two policemen trying to subdue a man as a car burned.
“He seemed to be waving something, people around me screamed that he had a knife, but I couldn’t see clearly from where I was,” she said.
“And then I heard one loud bang. It sounded like a gunshot.
“And someone said they could see someone doing chest compressions on someone as an ambulance started coming up the street.”
Another witness, Markel Villasin, told ABC Radio Melbourne he ran out of the store he was working in after hearing there was a fire and found himself next to an injured man.
“Turned out there was an old man in front of me, literally by my feet. He was facedown, facedown, and there was a lot of blood,” he said.
“I was already stepping on his blood.
“There was a lot of bystanders trying to help him out. They didn’t know what to do because obviously in that situation it is pretty crazy.”
Mr Villasin said bystanders were yelling out “just shoot him, just shoot him,” while police officers were trying to disarm the attacker.
Police are asking members of the public to avoid the area.
“Anyone with information or who witnessed the incident is asked to go to Melbourne West Police Station to make a statement,” a police statement said.
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Video: Witnesses describe how the attack unfolded. (ABC News)
Trams are not running along Bourke Street or Swanston Street in either direction.
Twitter: Daniel Andrews tweets: Thank you to the Victoria Police officers who responded so bravely
Premier Daniel Andrews tweeted, urging people to avoid the area and follow the instructions of emergency services personnel.
Opposition Leader Matthew Guy tweeted:
“Today, more than ever, we offer our thanks to Police and first responders for the unbelievable work they do for all of us.”
Topics: fires, disasters-and-accidents, melbourne-3000
First posted
Aussie Criminals and Crooks 
It’s about time the Australian Government was held to account for the many years of endangering the Australian people as a result of its poor decisionmaking that invites these scum to enter and reside in Australia with no regard for the rest of us.
It’s about time the Australian Government stopped sucking up to these assholes and their ilk and got tough.
The Australian Government is the driving force behind all of these terrorist acts. It lets the worst murderers in earth -men, women, kids and their communities – get away scot free.
No votes from me.
Give no penny.
Remember the kids holding up the heads of executed innocents.
Remember the Lindt cafe.
For those ignorants who defend such abusers of democracy and life:
You are as guilty as thes perpwtrators and should be ousted from your every seat.
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I’m happy the cops shot that animal l hope the sick bastard felt a lot of pain before his trip to hell .theres a lot of sick fucks in this world and lm glad there’s 1 less now now all we need is to punish those bitches who asulted the paramedics instead of letting them off Scot free and we will be on our way to getting a little justic back in Australia because right now there’s buggar all!!!
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Glad the bastard was killed it saves us tax payers from paying to keep the dog in jail. Sorry for the people he killed and injured.
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