Reports: 16 injured after car drives into crowd in Melbourne, driver arrested

MELBOURNE: Up to 16 people were injured after a car drove into a crowd in Melbourne's central business district on Thursday, media reports said.

The white SUV "collided with a number of pedestrians" on the corner of Flinders and Elizabeth streets, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

It said up to 16 people have been injured, including a toddler with a head injury. The child has been taken to Royal Children's Hospital in a serious condition, the report said

Sad day in my beauty #Melbourne. #Australia. Crazy driver crashed his car against several people. We were so close, horrible scare! pic.twitter.com/IZfStAOETd — ViviCP (@ViviKstiblanco) December 21, 2017

Two other people have been taken to hospital while paramedics are assessing 12 other people at the scene, where dozens of police cars, fire trucks and ambulances have arrived.

Police have arrested the driver of the car. An officer at the scene has described it as a terrorist incident. This has not been confirmed, Sydney Morning Herald said.

Images from the scene appear to show a number of people lying on the ground close to a large white vehicle. Hundreds of people are milling around the edges of the crash scene with police quelling a group in the crowd calling out that the incident was a terrorist attack. - The Straits Times/Asia News Network