Police have arrested a man after he allegedly carjacked a van and led police on an erratic chase across Melbourne, hitting multiple vehicles along the way.
The 9News helicopter captured the wild chase as the heavily damaged van travelled, on its rims with sparks flying, towards Melbourne’s south-west on the West Gate Freeway.
Helicopter footage showed the van weaving in and out of traffic on the West Gate Bridge, clipping multiple cars and narrowly missing dozens of other vehicles.
“The van was involved in collisions with several parked and moving vehicles. At this stage it is understood there are no serious injuries,” police said.
A young mum and her child were treated for shock after being involved in a minor collision according to police.
After appearing to travel at high-speeds up the West Gate Freeway and onto the Princes Freeway for about 15 minutes, the van exited the freeway at Palmers Road in Point Cook.
The van performed a sharp right turn onto Dunnings Road, then car sped through two street signs, which became snagged under the front wheels of the van.
Footage then showed a man, who police allege is a 36-year-old from Point Cook, being hit by a trailing unmarked police vehicle.
Several police officers pounced on the alleged offender and he was handcuffed and taken into custody.
He was later assessed by paramedics and was transported to hospital non-life-threatening injuries under police guard.
The alleged offender is yet to be interviewed by police, but Acting Inspector Dean Pickering said he expects “significant charges” to follow.
“Even looking at the videos I looked at, I’d lost count with fingers, toes and everything else in terms of how many charges I could see.
“It would be our intention to ensure he is off the streets for as long as we can keep him off the streets.”
Police say the incident began after officers were called to St Kilda Road in Melbourne about 5.40am following reports a man’s van was stolen, police said.
The van’s owner had been washing the outside of the vehicle before work, with the keys inside, when the Point Cook man allegedly accosted him.
“An offender has come up from behind, has grabbed him, has physically moved him away from the car, has jumped in the car,” Pickering said.
The van was then spotted in Footscray, before the AirWing and police on the ground followed it through several suburbs including Melbourne, Port Melbourne, Spotswood, Carnegie, Sunshine, Dandenong and Point Cook.
Pickering said police did not deliberately intend to hit the alleged offender with the police car,
“Looking at what happened, I don’t think anyone would have expected that offender to bail out of the window like he did, when he did,” Pickering said.
“The driver of that police car I’ve briefly spoken to, he wasn’t anticipating that that person was going to come out of the window and run like he did.”
