Police have raided the homes of accused Flinders Street rampage driver Saeed Noori’s family searching for clues to why he mowed down 17 people at a busy intersection.
The 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 Heidelberg West and Oak Park – where Noori lives – in Melbourne’s north on Thursday night, hours after the terrifying incident.
Police have raided the homes of accused Flinders Street rampage driver Saeed Noori’s family searching for clues to why he mowed down 17 people at a busy intersection
The home of Flinders Street rampage river Saeed Noori in Oak Park in Melbourne’s north, which was raided on Thursday nigth hours after the carnage
The family members present were reportedly cooperatives as forensics teams seized electronic items from the homes 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.
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,’ Acting Chief Commissioner Shane Patton said on Friday morning.
Commissioner Patton 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.
The 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
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 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.’
A second man was arrested after filming the car ploughing through crowds outside Melbourne’s Flinders Street train station and charged with weapons and drug offences
Police confirmed the man, 24, was not believed to have been involved in the carnage that injured 19 including the driver but they hope the footage he took will be useful to investigators
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.
Noori remained under police guard in hospital with detectives hoping to formally interview him on Friday afternoon and potentially lay charges after that.
A second man was arrested after filming the car ploughing through crowds outside Melbourne’s Flinders Street train station and charged with weapons and drug offences.
Police confirmed the man, 24, was not believed to have been involved in the carnage that injured 19 including the driver but they hope the footage he took will be useful to investigators.
Chaotic scenes unfolded during peak-hour as the white SUV crashed into the group of panicked pedestrians (pictured)
Victoria Police’s acting Chief Commissioner Shane Patton said the man had now been charged with cannabis and weapons charges.
‘He ran, was grabbed, and arrested,’ Mr Patton told 3AW. ‘We don’t believe he was involved in this matter at all. His footage may be valuable.’
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.
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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