A woman has been rushed to hospital with serious injuries along with another man after an alleged machete attack in Melbourne’s CBD.
The pair were allegedly attacked near the corner of Queen and Flinders Streets at about 2.30am on Monday while the city was packed with visitors for the Moomba Festival and the F1 Australian Grand Prix.
The female victim, in her 20s, was taken to hospital in a serious condition with wounds to her upper body. The man, also believed to be in his 20s, suffered mid-body injuries and was hospitalised but was in a stable condition, ABC News reported.
A 25-year-old man was charged with affray and intentionally cause injury, and photos from the scene show blood splatters and high heels and handbags strewn on the ground.
Melbourne’s Moomba Festival has been plagued with African and other ethnic gang violence since 2016, but Mayor Nick Reece said the incident was “isolated:” and he was “delighted” with the behaviour of revellers overall.
“It wasn’t that many weeks back when we were having some trouble around some of these big events, but we haven’t seen that this weekend,” he said.
“There was one isolated incident, and of course, one is one too many.
“But overall it’s been a really good weekend, I’m delighted as lord mayor and I know Victoria Police are as well.”
The alleged attack comes after Good Samaritan Aidan Becker, 22, was allegedly murdered by four teenagers when he stepped in to stop them from attacking a 14-year-old boy outside Mernda train station in Melbourne’s northeast.
Mr Becker’s death has resulted in an outpouring of grief from his community, and sparked anger over the Labor state government’s ineffective machete ban and failure to stop out-of-control youth and gang crime.
Header image: Police at the scene of the alleged machete attack (ABC News).
