Posted on 11/17/2016 10:16:27 PM PST by naturalman1975
SIX people are in a critical condition and 27 people were injured after a fire at a Commonwealth Bank branch in Springvale in Melbourne’s southeast.
Police said a man set himself alight after walking into the bank with a flammable accelerant, about 11.30am.
Two men in their 20s, a man in his 60s, a man in his 70s, a woman in her 20s and another man were taken to the Alfred suffering serious burns.
Ambulance Victoria said 21 other people — including a toddler and a person in their 80s — were treated for breathing problems and taken to hospital.
Acting Inspector Jackie Poida said it was “too early to tell” what the man’s motive was.
.....
Asked whether the attack was terror related, Acting Insp Poida said it was “too early to tell”.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.com.au ...
(To be fair, 'Acting Inspector' is often a rank in the local police given to a Sergeant who is suddenly having to take on a role above their paygrade, especially a sensitive role, because nobody else was available. I can see such a person being more cautious than a more senior officer in what they rule in or out).
A QUICK thinking tradie has been labelled a hero after he ran into an exploded bank and put out the flames in Melbourne’s south.
Ash Atkin-Fone was laying pipes in an alleyway opposite the Springvale Rd when he heard a “big blast” and seconds later heard a child’s screams from the Commonwealth Bank.
“This kid comes running out, all burnt, screaming his head off, skin coming off, blood everywhere,” he said.
Immediately, he sprinted across the road to the neighbouring Optus store.
He grabbed a fire extinguisher and ran into the “pitch black” bank, dousing the flames and putting out the blaze before firefighters even arrived.
“There was four people getting blasted (with glass) along the street,” Mr Atkin-Fone said.
Asked why he put himself in danger and ran into a burning building he simply said “I had to”.
“What do you do? Instincts just kicked in,” Mr Atkin-Fone said.
Tradie: common Australian term for a tradesman (looks like a plumber in this case)
“He set himself alight with that fire”
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That more a Buddhist shtick.
Yes - and Springvale is well known for its significant Asian population (especially people with Vietnamese, Indian, Cambodian, and Chinese ancestry). But as I say, the police aren’t ruling out terrorism so we’ll wait and see.
Heroes run in.
Are most of the Asian people long time residents or relatively new?
Asian immigration to Australia was almost totally banned from around 1900 until the 1960s (the ‘White Australia Policy’). A small Chinese community did exist (mostly descended from gold miners in the mid 19th century), but it wasn’t until the late 1970s when boat people from Vietnam and other places started arriving that we got many more Asian people.
Springvale started to become an Asian hub around then, and the locals are a mix of second or even third generation Asian-Australians, and newer arrivals.
Ah yeah, we got our share of boat people, too in my area (metro area, Minnesota). Have more Hmong and Somalians than any other city-state.
The Asian folk that have been here a long time (Chinese, Korean, Japanese have assimilated really well. The Hmong are still learning and Somalians seem to have little, if any, interest in joining the melting pot.
And that’s not counting the illegals from south of the border.
I agree. Although this might be terrorism, it sounds more like a suicide attempt related to an action the back took. I’ll wait awhile on this one.
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