British national among five people hurt in random stabbing attacks across Melbourne

Victoria Police detective says victims were all going about their own business: ‘It was completely random’

Police seen in Bourke St on November 09, 2018 in Melbourne, Australia (Getty Images)

Police in Australia have arrested a man following a series of stabbings on Saturday night that injured at least five people, including a British national, in Melbourne.

A 31-year-old man from Melton has been charged in connection with stabbing five people in four separate random attacks over a three-hour period, Victoria Police said in a statement.

One of the victims, a 24-year-old who was stabbed outside a burger store around 10pm local time, was taken to hospital with a non-life-threatening leg injury.

CCTV footage supplied by the burger shop shows a man in a light green jacket running up Melbourne’s King St and plunging a knife into the leg of a male pedestrian.

This was the earliest in what police described as a series of four random stabbings.

The burger store’s owner Margi Patel said staff at the outlet provided towels, water and napkins to the injured man and bystanders rushed to his aid, local news reported.

“I never feel unsafe but after last night, my perspective changed a little bit,” Ms Patel told NCA NewsWire.

About an hour later a man and a woman walking along Dandenong Road were then stabbed.

The woman sustained life-threatening injuries while the man’s arm was seriously injured, police said, adding that both were immediately taken to hospital and are “now stable”.

In a third incident, a British national was stabbed on Acland Street and was taken to hospital with non-life-threatening leg injuries.

Police said that the perpectrator used different types of knives in each attack and lunged at defenceless victims from behind, in what police called a series of “cowardly” attacks.

In each of the incidents, police say, the victims were going about their own business and would have had no clue they were about to be attacked.

“It was completely random,” detective Andrew Eyries said, according to ABC News.

Detectives are also investigating whether a stabbing in Southbank may be linked.

The suspect who has been remanded in custody was not named by police on Sunday. He will appear before Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Monday, Victoria Police said.

He has been charged with 15 charges overall, including five counts of intentionally cause injury and one count of possessing a controlled weapon.