A wild seven-hour police chase across Melbourne in broad daylight came to a dramatic ending when a man jumped from a speeding van straight into the path of an oncoming unmarked cop car.
It’s understood the Toyota HiAce allegedly collided with cars in the Domain Tunnel before the driver took police on a pursuit through the city’s south-east on Friday.
The Toyota HiAce van was allegedly stolen from St Kilda earlier that morning just before 6am.
‘The vehicle was then spotted in Footscray and followed by the Air Wing and police on the ground as it drove, at times erratically, through several suburbs,’ a police statement read.
Footage obtained by news helicopters captured the heavily damaged vehicle weaving in and out of busy traffic on the West Gate and Princes freeways, causing more carnage along the way.
The van clipped multiple cars and had near-misses with dozens of others during the chase.
It also hit several street signs when it mounted the curb to avoid a parked vehicle.
The pursuit finally ended on Dunnings Rd in Point Cook shortly before 1pm, where a man jumped from the driver’s seat window of the moving van into oncoming traffic.
The driver of his van led police on a high speed chase across Melbourne on Friday
The man’s attempts to evade police finally ended when he was struck by an unmarked cop car
But as he made a run for it, his attempts to evade police ended in disaster seconds later when he was struck by an unmarked cop car.
The impact resulted in the man being thrown across the bonnet, losing one of his shoes in the process.
Plain-clothed officers jumped out and quickly swarmed the man lying on the median strip.
The moving van knocked down another road sign before it finally came to a rolling stop.
It’s not known whether anyone else was in the van at the time.
The Point Cook man, 36, suffered non-life-threatening injuries and was transported to hospital under police guard.
Photos showed the bloodied man lying on a stretcher using an inhaler, known as the green whistle, for pain relief.
He is yet to be interviewed by police.
No other motorists were seriously injured during the pursuit, police said.
The man was arrested moments after he jumped out of the moving van
