Customers in a Melbourne shopping centre have reported a horror stabbing that has left staff and shoppers cowering for cover – with a teenager in a serious condition.
Emergency services were called to the shopping centre at 2.39pm upon reports of an assault.
‘Police are responding to reports of numerous people fighting at a shopping centre on Murray Road in Preston this afternoon,’ a police spokeswoman said.
‘The shopping centre has been locked down while the incident is ongoing.’
Several police cars and ambulances are on scene.
Paramedics have treated a male teenager for injuries to his upper body and have since transported him to Royal Melbourne Hospital in a serious condition.
Another ambulance crew remains on scene, a spokesman confirmed, but it is understood just one victim has been treated so far.
Customers have locked themselves in shops inside the centre, after shouting alerted them to the danger.
Some have reported entering the centre’s Kmart, Myers and Smiggle outlets.
‘Some guys with machetes apparently. We just arrived and everyone was running out telling us to run,’ one local said.
‘My daughter is currently locked in Smiggle and called me saying someone running around with knives,’ another said.
‘My friends are in a shop calming the staff down. They heard all the shouting and went into the nearest shop and got the staff to lock the doors,’ a third reported.
More to come.
A Melbourne shopping centre has been plunged into lockdown over reports of a knife fight
