Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Monash Freeway incident: Man arrested after bomb squad targets truck in ... - ABC Online


Updated May 22, 2014 07:27:06


A man has been arrested after the bomb squad was called to a major incident on Melbourne's Monash Freeway this morning.


The Bomb Response Unit was summoned after what the ABC understands was a police chase involving a prime mover travelling on the wrong side of the freeway.


Police put an exclusion zone around the scene near Toorak Rd at Glen Iris as the incident unfolded about 4:00am (AEST).


A 35-year-old man from Caulfield South was later arrested.


Police have now declared the scene safe, and the road has been reopened in both directions, but there is heavy traffic on most alternate routes into the city.


ABC cameraman Roy Frattinger was caught up in the incident on the way to work when traffic on the Monash came to a sudden stop just past Toorak Road.


"It was a parking lot basically, so I just pulled up in the group and the police came up and said they're shutting it down, you're not moving anywhere," he said.


"We all sort of piled out of the car and waited for a while, and they moved us back another 100 metres and it was then that they mentioned something about a bomb."


Mr Frattinger said most people remained calm.


"If you'd been around closer to the area you might have been a bit more nervous about it," he said.


"Everyone was really calm. There was a woman with a kid of eight or nine [and] she was reassuring him.


"But that was basically it for stress really, most people wanted to get the heck off the highway."


Earlier, ABC reporter Ashlynne McGhee reported from St Kevin's College, looking up at the freeway.


"I can see what appears to be the prime mover with some police lights flashing around it," she told 774 ABC Melbourne.


"We can't see police running around anywhere from this distance but we can see where the blockage is.


"There is an exclusion zone around the area while they (police) check it all out.


"We've just been told that the bomb squad has arrived on the scene."


Topics: police, law-crime-and-justice, glen-iris-3146, vic


First posted May 22, 2014 05:35:33



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