6:07pm One person killed by stabbing following car explosion
Police have said one person has died from stab wounds following the car explosion in Bourke Street.
Three people were stabbed, police said.
6:04pm Witness says he could feel the hear from the car explosion
By Simone Fox Koob
Michael said he had been going to buy an iPhone cover when he heard a series of explosions “going bang bang bang” for a couple of minutes.
“The heat was so bad,” he said.
“Bang, bang, everyone yelling bomb, so I ran to have a look and saw a car burning and a guy runs up the road covered in blood. A white guy, tubby, and he ran away.
“I looked back and there was a tall man fighting cops in the middle of the road. They dragged him down.”
He said the man, covered in blood particularly around his head, tripped on the footpath as he was trying to get away.
“Some people came across and did CPR, I don’t know who they were, they were bystanders.
“Another guy was sitting in the curb with his head in his hands.”
He said the flames were metres in the air, reaching the trees above.
“It could have been me, if I was walking there a minute later...”
6:01pm Witness: “It was pretty frightening"
3AW caller Sarah witnessed the car explosion on Bourke Street and has relayed her account of the incident to Tom Elliott.
City events are beginning to be cancelled including the opening of the Myer Christmas Windows that families were expecting to see unveiled at 6:30pm.
Andrew Lloyd Weber's School of Rock is also set to open tonight, with the Red Carpet from 6pm at Her Majestys Theatre.
The opening night is going ahead, a spokeswoman for the production said, after their security team spoke to police who have advised that the incident did not affect the area surrounding the theatre.
5:55pm What we know so far
By Henrietta Cook
This is what we know so far about a violent incident on Bourke Street, which has brought Melbourne's CBD to a standstill.
The car exploded on Bourke Street, near the intersection with Swanston Street, about 4.20pm. A man, believed to be the driver, stabbed two people and was then shot by police and survived. Three people have been taken to hopsital, one with a suspected critical condition. Trams along Swanston Street and Bourke Street are not running in either direction. The central CBD is being evacuated and police are urging anyone who witnessed the incident to make a report at the Melbourne West Police Station at 313 Spencer Street. Police will hold a media conference on the incident shortly.
5:49pm Witnesses: man ran from burning car and tried to stab people
By Erin Pearson
Mass evacuations are underway in the central CBD and the alarm system is blaring out for people to leave the area.
Witnesses said they saw the man run from the burning car before attempting to stab people at random.
A man charges at police following a car explosion on Bourke Street.
5:44pm Sheet covering body on Bourke Street
By Debbie Cuthbertson
Just after 5.20pm, a body was seen lying under a white sheet on Bourke Street, near the entrance to Russell Place.
There were a large pair of men's black lace-up shoes nearby. Only the soles of the person's feet were visible.
We do not know who this person is at this stage or their connection with the explosion.
5:41pm Police to hold media conference at 5.45pm
Police will be holding a media conference about the car explosion on Bourke Street in about five minutes.
5:40pm Centre of Melbourne CBD evacuated
The centre of Melbourne's CBD including Bourke Street Mall and the Myer and David Jones stalls have been evacuated.
There are anti-terror sirens going off in the city at the moment on loudspeakers.
This is the message being played: "This is Victoria Police, please evacuate the area. This is Victoria Police, please evacuate the area."
Police block off Bourke Street.
Police block off Bourke Street.Credit:Joe Armao
5:38pm
Twitter footage of the aftermath of the fire
This footage captures the moment the man charged at police following the car explosion outside the Target store on Bourke Street.
A bystander appears to try to stop the man by ramming him with a trolley but is knocked down.
5:32pm Witnesses say they saw the man throw an item into the car before it exploded
Witnesses told The Age they were shopping in the area when they saw a man throw what they believed to be a bomb into a car before it exploded.
They had initially thought the man was running to catch a tram close by, before a nearby police car rushed to the scene. They said they heard screams and cries from the crowd before they were rushed from the area.
One witness, Sarah Krug said she was heading to the night noddle markets when "all hell broke loose".
Her immediate thought was "Oh no, not another Bourke Street incident," she said.
"I thought the car was coming for us," Ms Krug said.
"I didn't know what was happening there was just so much chaos and screaming."
5:30pm Trams not running on Bourke Street or Swanston Street
Yarra Trams has advised trams are not running along Bourke Street or Swanston Street due to the car explosion.
5:28pm Police urging public to avoid Bourke Street
Police are urging members of the public to avoid the intersection of Bourke Street and Swanston Street, near where a car caught fire and a man was shot in a confrontation with police.
They are reassuring the public they are not looking for anyone further at this stage in connection with the explosion.
Three people have been hospitalised.
The burnt out vehicle in Bourke Street.
5:25pm Statement from Ambulance Victoria
Ambulance Victoria has issued the following statement:
Paramedics have been called to an incident in Melbourne CBD.
Paramedics have assessed three people at the scene.
One person has been taken to hospital with a neck injury. They are in a suspected critical condition.
A second person has been taken to hospital with a head injury. Condition not yet known.
A third person has also been taken to hospital. Condition and injuries are not yet known.
Genders and age of patients are not yet known.
For further details talk to Victoria Police.
5:21pm Witness: “I heard what sounded like a couple of gunshots”
By Simone Fox Koob
Frank Dicle was in his stall on the corner of Swanston and Bourke streets when he said he heard a “big bang” and saw a huge fire in the reflection of the shop opposite.
“I heard a massive explosion and looked through the window and there is this massive flame,” he said.
“I heard what sounded like a couple of gunshots”
He didn’t see the individual who started the blaze.
“There was just the flame, then the cops and ambulance.”
Police confront a man after a vehicle crashed and burst into flames on Bourke Street in the CBD.
5:19pm Witnesses urged to make statement to police
Police have asked any witnesses of the car explosion on Bourke Street to go to Melbourne West Police Station on 313 Spencer Street to make a statement.
5:18pm Do you know more about the incident?
If you were on Bourke Street and witnessed the car fire and the aftermath, please get in touch .
How much more of this are we going to suffer? We have zero tolerance to drink driving and zero tolerance to not paying tax and any number of other zero tolerance encroachments, none of which involve the deliberate slaughter of innocent people and deliberate destruction of property to cause further death.
Why can’t we have a zero tolerance policy for terrorists? There is no point placing them on ‘known to police’ or on a watch list as well proven. Get the bloody gloves off, the first ‘known to police’ incident and off they go—jail if a citizen, immediate deportation if not or holding dual citizenship! It’s good place to begin.
Andrew Bolt, Herald Sun
The terrorist attack on Friday that killed Melbourne restaurateur Sisto Malaspina was our fifth by Muslim refugees. So why are we running a refugee program that has so far killed five Australians?
In fact, there was likely a sixth deadly Islamist attack by a refugee, but it cannot be mentioned while the case is before the courts.
So Malaspina, co-owner of the iconic Pellegrini’s, wasn’t murdered just by 30-year-old Hassan Khalif Shire Ali, whose family came here from Somalia.
He was also killed by the refusal of so many politicians, police, judges and journalists to tell the truth about a refugee program that puts us in danger. They’d rather lie or stay silent than seem racist.
Some are already excusing Ali, saying he was just mentally unwell when he tried to blow up his car with gas cylinders in busy Bourke St and then stabbed three people until police shot him dead.
But that won’t wash. Few people with mental illness try to take out shoppers with a car bomb.
The difference with Muslims is that some believe their holiest texts suggest a script — that murdering unbelievers gets them to Paradise.
When the Islamic State in 2014 ordered Muslims around the world to kill unbelievers, its statement quoted scripture at least 25 times in support.
Those quotations included this, from the Koran: “Kill the polytheists wherever you find them.”
Ali responded. He tried to join IS in Syria but his passport was cancelled in 2015 and he was monitored by Victoria Police as one of 300 potential threats.
Other relevant facts about his background have been suppressed by a court order.
Nor was Ali the only Muslim refugee here to feel called upon to kill for his faith.
Last year, another Somali-born refugee, Yacqub Khayre, murdered a worker at serviced apartments in Brighton, held a woman hostage and shot three police after telling Channel 7: “This is for IS, this is for al-Qaeda.”
In 2015, Farhad Jabar, an Iranian refugee, killed police accountant Curtis Cheng while shouting “Allah is the greatest”.
In 2014, Man Monis, an Iranian refugee, staged the deadly Lindt Cafe siege while professing support for IS. Two hostages died.
Also in 2014, Numan Haider, an Afghan refugee and IS recruit, stabbed two police in Melbourne.
Even this does not tell the full story of the threat our politicians imported through our refugee program that took in badly educated people from Third World and tribal war zones, mostly Muslim — people who’d struggle to fit in.
True, most refugees are actually peaceful. Some have succeeded in inspiring ways. Many are grateful for our help.
Afghan refugee Mohammad Ali Baryalei became a recruiter and fighter for IS.
But then there was Mohammad Ali Baryalei, an Afghan refugee, who became a recruiter and fighter for IS.
Saney Edow Aweys, another Somalian refugee, plotted to attack the Holsworthy Army base.
In fact, about half of the Islamists jailed for terrorism are from our Muslim Lebanese community, which grew fast after the Fraser government accepted thousands of people fleeing the Lebanese civil war.
Nor are we terrorised only by refugees who are terrorists.
In Victoria, Sudanese Australians — almost all from refugee families — are 57 times more likely to commit an aggravated burglary and 33 times more likely to riot, according to the Victorian Crime Statistics Agency.
The statistics don’t lie. But those in charge of our safety have been, say, economical with the truth.
A decade ago, then Victoria Police chief commissioner Christine Nixon told an astonishing untruth about Sudanese refugees: “What we’re actually seeing is that they’re not, in a sense, represented more than the proportion of them in the population.”
Bravery of Lindt cafe victims recognised
Last year, ASIO boss Duncan Lewis said something equally misleading in rebuking One Nation leader Pauline Hanson: “I have absolutely no evidence to suggest there is a connection between refugees and terrorism.”
In 2009, Labor prime minister Kevin Rudd savaged Liberal MP Wilson Tuckey for correctly warning that a terrorist could hide among the many genuine asylum seekers: “I think these are deeply divisive, disgusting remarks and they do not belong in any mainstream political party.”
Under pressure, then Liberal leader Malcolm Turnbull repeated a sweet falsehood: “I reject any person, any statement, which suggests that asylum seekers are, or are likely to be, terrorists.”
Enough.
No one should want the many decent refugees here to feel unwelcome,but nor should any Australians die because we were too weak to tell the truth — and act upon it.
Leftist media saturates the news. Fight back. Send articles to your friends, politicians, local media, and facebook.
haiyaaa ciilaaka luuwa weelas waaa
Moga2 pada sadar,beda nyeee antara Parasites dgn Immigrants waaa!!!!
Sisto Malaspina holds court in Pellegrini’s Expresso Bar in Melbourne, in 2010.
Vittoria Coffee CEO Les Schirato remembers meeting Pellegrini’s Espresso Bar co-owner Sisto Malaspina when he was just a teenager.
The life of the widely-loved Malaspina, who was killed on Friday afternoon in a terrorist attack in Melbourne, will be celebrated next Tuesday with a state funeral for the Italian-born 74-year-old many considered the heart of the city.
The Pellegrini brothers, Leo and Vildo, who’d worked at nearby Café Florentino opened Italian cafe their at 66 Bourke Street in 1954 and after expanding in 1958 began serving family-owned Vittoria Coffee. That hasn’t changed. Nor has the blend.
Some 15 years later, Malaspina bought the business with his friend Nino Pangrazio. They ran it together for the next 44 years, before Friday’s tragedy, which sent shockwaves of grief through the thousands who met the cafe’s charming and generous over the decades.
Th duo had just taken over Pellegrini’s when Schirato, fresh to his own family’s coffee business first met the dashing Italian, a decade his senior, who he’d go on to regard as an older brother. When Schirato’s son, Rolando, now Vittoria’s managing director, was just four-years-old, he too went went to meet “Uncle Sisto”
Vittoria’s love of their long-standing customers and the values they embody inspired them to make a short film about duo as a celebration to their enduring success.
That mini-doco has now turned into a touching tribute to a life full of laughter and joy.
Vittoria and the Schirato’s posted their film about Malaspina and Pangrazio on social media last night, saying:.
Pellegrinis has been a client since 1959. In 1974 Sisto took over and had been a friend and loyal customer for the last 44 years. A beautiful man who will remain an icon of the Australian hospitality industry for generations to come.
For those of you that never had the privilege to meet Sisto and experience his hospitality, we hope you enjoy this short clip we shot recently with Sisto and his partner Nino.
Our thoughts are with his many friends and family. The Vittoria Family.
Russell Crowe
Verified account @russellcrowe
Sisto, il mio cuore si spezza ... I’ve been going to Pellegrini’s since 1987. Never been to Melbourne without dropping in on my man Sisto . South Sydney stickers on the wall and caps on display.
My sweet loyal friend, stabbed in the street by a mad man.
Cosí triste.
Mr Malaspina, 74, died after he was attacked by 30-year-old Somali-born Hassan Khalif Shire Ali, who crashed his vehicle loaded with gas bottles in the Melbourne CBD and stabbed three people before he was shot by police and died in hospital.
Eyewitnesses said it appeared Mr Malaspina was walking over to the car after it burst into flames to offer assistance, when he was stabbed in the chest.
haiyaaa ciilaaka luuwa weelas waaa
Gara2 Parasite,org baik ramah yg dicintai banyak org mati sia2 waaa!!!!
Doi mo nolong malah dibunuh,KEBIADABAN ini terjadi di-mana2 diseluruh duniyeee dimane ade Parasites waaaa!!!!
Moral of the story,never tried to save Parasites or you might get killed waaa!!!
