31 Jan 2017

Sixth person dies from Melbourne car rampage

7:01 am on 31 January 2017

A 33-year-old woman has become the sixth person to die after a car was driven into pedestrians on Melbourne's Bourke Street 10 days ago, police say.

Police in Melbourne have arrested a man after a car hit pedestrians in the city centre, killing three people and injuring at least 20.

Police in Melbourne arrested a man after a car hit pedestrians in the city centre, killing or injuring several people. Photo: Twitter / @danielbowen

Police said the woman, a resident of Melbourne suburb Blackburn South, died in hospital just before 7.30pm yesterday.

Nine patients remained in hospital and one was still in a critical condition, Victoria police said, after 39 people were treated in relation to the incident.

Four people including 10-year-old Thalia Hakin, 22-year-old Jess Mudie, 33-year-old Matthew Si and a 25-year-old man died at the scene. Three-month-old baby boy Zachary died the following night.

Matthew Si and Jess Muddie were among the five people killed in Bourke St, Melbourne.

Matthew Si and Jess Mudie were among the five people killed in the Bourke Street crash. Photo: Supplied / Victoria Police

The man accused of driving the car, 26-year-old Dimitrious Gargasoulas, has been charged with five counts of murder.

He was remanded in custody and ordered to face court via video link in August.

People pay their respects to the Bourke Street victims at Federation Square in Melbourne last Monday.

People pay their respects to the Bourke Street victims at Federation Square in Melbourne last Monday. Photo: AFP

Melbourne lord mayor Robert Doyle said on Monday that victims of the incident would be permanently remembered in a memorial in the city, as flowers laid at Bourke Street were set to be removed.

"We see it more as a place of reflection, of contemplation, of remembrance and so somewhere in a garden I think would be very Melbourne, rather than the idea of a statue or something of that nature," he said.

Floral tributes to the victims were laid along the street in the days after the crash.

Floral tributes to the victims were laid along the street in the days after the crash. Photo: AFP

"There has been an outpouring of communication and love, people are invested in this and so they should be.

"We want them to feel that they're invested not just in the immediate aftermath but the way we remember it as well."

A fund set up to assist victims and their families has raised almost $1 million.

-ABC

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