A man has been charged after allegedly slashing three shoppers with a box cutter at a Melbourne shopping centre.
Victoria Police said a Narre Warren man, 30, was arrested while trying to flee the scene at Westfield Fountain Gate at about 2.25pm on Tuesday.
Two men and a woman were taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries after allegedly being attacked near a bus stop on Overland Drive.
A witnesses said the man was covered in blood when he was detained by police after trying to hide inside a toilet in the centre.
The man was charged with affray, recklessly causing injury, unlawful assault and possession of a controlled weapon, and was granted bail to appear in Dandenong Magistrates Court on February 14.
One witness said on social media: “A knife attack at the bus stop and huge police presence, they arrested a guy full of blood on his face from inside the toilet in front of Coles.”
This alleged stabbing is the latest in a series of knife attacks in Melbourne malls this year.
A man in his 30s allegedly stabbed two security guards with a broken bottle at Waverley Gardens Shopping Centre in Mulgrave last month, days after three teenagers were allegedly stabbed when ethnic gang violence erupted at Westfield Doncaster.
Five teens were charged with offences including assault, affray and robbery, and three were granted bail.
Two weeks before that, 16-year-old Oscar Hamilton was allegedly stabbed to death in an unrelated incident at Woodgrove Shopping Centre, which is notorious for African gang violence.
A 15-year-old boy has been charged with murder over his death.
Header image credit: Westfield Fountain Gate
