A man was seen fleeing the home of accused Flinders Street rampage driver Saeed Noori’s family hours after it was raided by police investigating the ‘evil act’.
Norri, a 32-year-old Afghan refugee, was dragged from the car and arrested minutes after he ploughed through crowds of Christmas shoppers and commuters outside Flinders Street Station.
Police said it did not appear to a terrorist attack but raided two homes in Melbourne’s north on Thursday night, hours after the terrifying incident.
A man was seen fleeing the home of accused Flinders Street rampage driver Saeed Noori’s family hours after it was raided by police investigating the ‘evil act’
The home of Flinders Street rampage river Saeed Noori’s family in Oak Park in Melbourne’s north, which was raided on Thursday night hours after the carnage
Norri, a 32-year-old Afghan refugee, was dragged from the car and arrested minutes after he ploughed through crowds of Christmas shoppers and commuters outside Flinders Street Station
The unknown man hid his face with a grey jumper as he ran from the house on Ridge Road in Oak Park and legged it down the street away from the waiting media.
The four-bedroom, one-bathroom white weatherboard house is inhabited by members of Norri’s family, but he himself lived at another house across town in Heidelberg East that was also raided.
Two 4WDs, a boat, and a trailer were parked in the house’s front yard on Friday afternoon and the occupants did not answer the door when approached by reporters, and neighbours said they didn’t know Norri.
The house was last sold for $980,000 on November 18, 2015, but property listings did not identify the owner or occupants.
The family members present were reportedly cooperatives as forensics teams seized electronic items from the homes on Thursday night that police will comb through for clues about Noori’s motives.
‘At this stage nothing has been found to indicate a linkage to extremism, a terrorist organisation or anything of a terrorist nature,’ police told Daily Mail Australia on Friday.
The unknown man hid his face with a grey jumper as he ran from the house on Ridge Road in Oak Park
He legged it down the street away from the waiting media, leaving the jumper around his head as he left the area
The four-bedroom, one-bathroom white weatherboard house is inhabited by members of Norri’s family, but he himself lived at another house across town in Heidelberg East that was also raided
Acting Chief Commissioner Shane Patton said there were no signs in Norri’s online activity that he planned the attack in advance, and that counter-terrorism specialists did not believe it was a terrorist attack.
‘We haven’t excluded [him being motivated by terrorism]. We haven’t seen any warning signs that there was any threat of violence,’ he said.
Speaking briefly to investigators last night as he lay in a hospital bed at St Vincent’s under police guard, the Noori made a ‘number of utterances’ and ‘spoke about dreams and voices’.
‘But he also did attribute some of his actions to the poor treatment of Muslims,’ Commissioner Patton said on Friday morning.
He said Noori had a history of drug use and mental illness, stressing that investigators had not yet found any extremist or terrorist links to the horror rampage.
Noori tried to hide his face with his cuffed hands while sitting between two detectives as he left Melbourne Police Station heading for the Custody Centre below the Magistrates Court on Friday evening
Acting Chief Commissioner Shane Patton said there were no signs in Norri’s online activity that he planned the attack in advance, and that counter-terrorism specialists did not believe it was a terrorist attack
Noori tried to hide his face with his cuffed hands while sitting between two detectives as he left Melbourne Police Station heading for the Custody Centre below the Magistrates Court on Friday evening.
He spent the previous 24 hours under police guard in hospital after crashing the white Suzuki Vitara into a tram stop bollard at the corner of Flinders and Elizabeth Streets
Detectives were not able to interview him due to his injuries from the crash and a struggle with an off-duty police sergeant who heroically wrestled him from the car before other officers arrested him.
Investigators were still searching for a motive for Noori’s alleged ‘evil act’ and it was hoped a formal interview, likely followed by criminal charges, would shed some light on them.
Two 4WDs, a boat, and a trailer were parked in the house’s front yard on Friday afternoon and the occupants did not answer the door when approached by reporters, and neighbours said they didn’t know Norri
Witness described seeing the car hurtling towards the crowd, ploughing through people in its path and crashing into the pole
Noori arrived in Australia as a refugee in 2004 through a resettlement program, and had several run-ins with the law between 2008 and earlier this year.
‘He came to Australia as a refugee. He did not come with a people smuggler, he came through the appropriate refugee, the normal refugee programs,’ Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said.
‘At this stage, because investigations are continuing, apart from that statement, there are no known links to any political issues or any, certainly any links to extremist groups.
‘Therefore, the position I am advised off at the moment is that no terrorism link has been identified at this stage. I want to stress, there is a mass of material that is being investigated and nothing should be ruled out, nothing should be ruled out.
‘Now, whatever the motivation, this was a despicable and cowardly act, but I want to reassure all Australians that this is an isolated incident.’
Victims of the rampage included a four-year-old boy with serious head injuries, but in a stable condition, and three others still in critical condition
Police said it did not appear to a terrorist attack but raided two homes in Heidelberg West and Oak Park – where Noori lives – in Melbourne’s north on Thursday night, hours after the terrifying incident
Noori’s legal issues started with a minor assault charge in 2010 that was dropped after he pleaded guilty to recklessly causing injury and was fined $800.
Then in June this year he was convicted and fined $1000 after pleading guilty to driving while unlicensed, using a mobile phone while driving, and failing to answer bail.
The missing bail charges was from when he missed a court date for the driving offences, which occurred either early this year or late last year, and which he also faced court for in February.
Victims of the rampage included a four-year-old boy with serious head injuries, but in a stable condition, and three others still in critical condition.
Others were men aged 25, 40, 43, 45, and 83; two 25-year-old women, and other women aged 30, 35, 47, and 58 along with another three men and two women of unknown age.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said the ‘horrific act’ was targeted against ‘innocent bystanders’.
‘This is a terrible, evil, cowardly act… At a time of the year when so many families are celebrating the end of they year, doing their Christmas shopping … we have seen a horrific act,’ he said.
Chaotic scenes unfolded during peak-hour as the white SUV crashed into the group of panicked pedestrians (pictured)
Paramedics at the scene were holding up tarps around the injured (pictured) who lay on the tram tracks of the busy street
Witness described seeing the car hurtling towards the crowd, ploughing through people in its path and crashing into the pole.
‘It just mowed everybody down, people were flying everywhere. We heard thump, thump. People are running everywhere,’ one told radio station 3AW:
Dramatic footage then showed a number of injured pedestrians being treated by passersby as they wait for paramedics.
‘He has gone straight through the red light at pace and it was bang, bang, bang. It was just one after the other,’ another told the Herald Sun.
‘There were bodies on the ground and people running up to them – it was mayhem.’
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