A 16-year-old boy in a stolen SUV hit a woman in downtown Melbourne on Sunday morning and came within meters of driving into the Melbourne Marathon crowd. Police drew their guns.
The Melbourne Marathon is one of Australia’s biggest running events. Thousands of runners were on the course, passing right by Flinders Street Station, when the chaos started around 10:45 a.m. local time.
Victoria Police say the teen was driving a stolen Ford Escape east along the tram tracks on Flinders Street when he struck the woman, who is in her 50s, at the Elizabeth Street intersection. He did a U-turn outside the station and kept going, clipping several parked cars on Flinders Lane.
“Cops got their guns out, told everyone to get down, and the kid did a U-turn and sped off.”
Witness message shared by 3AW radio host Jacqueline Felgate
A traffic control truck parked at the Flinders and Swanston intersection is the only reason he never reached the runners. Bystanders had to drag the injured woman off the road so she would not get hit again.
“Bystanders had to actually drag the injured person off the road so that they wouldn’t be hit again because this guy was not slowing down.”
Kirk Pearson, barista at Zero Coffee on Flinders Street
The woman was taken to the Royal Melbourne Hospital with upper body injuries that are not life threatening. The teen was arrested later without incident on Beaconsfield Parade in Albert Park. Police say the SUV was stolen from a business in Cranbourne South around 2 a.m. that morning, and confirmed the crash was not terrorism and not a targeted attack.
The marathon went on. Eliud Kipchoge won it, his first marathon victory in three years.
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