Four arrested after alleged abduction, stabbing in Melbourne

Four people have been arrested over an alleged car theft and stabbing in Melbourne's north last night.

Transcript

00:00 Well, this would have been quite a terrifying experience for the victim.

00:05 Police believe that he was abducted and stabbed.

00:07 In fact, he suffered facial lacerations and is now in hospital.

00:11 And they're certainly hoping that they'll be able to speak to him further to try to

00:14 piece together exactly what has happened here in Preston in Melbourne's northern suburbs.

00:20 Now just 10 minutes drive down the road at the corner of Bell and High Streets in Preston

00:27 is where they say this victim was, in their words, "released from a stolen car".

00:32 So we don't know whether or not he managed to scramble out to safety or whether or not

00:37 he was actually ejected from that vehicle.

00:40 And then after that, police actually employed some stop sticks and the car has ended up

00:47 coming around the corner here to Bischoff Street where it's actually crashed into this

00:52 car here behind me that was parked on the side of the road.

00:56 We spoke just a little while ago to one of the neighbours here, Anthony, to ask him about

01:02 exactly what happened.

01:05 We heard a commotion, minor commotion.

01:09 The next thing I've heard a lot is screaming in the front yard.

01:12 There was a long bladed knife in the garden.

01:16 They said, "Do you mind if we come through and have a look through your backyard?"

01:19 I said, "Yeah, no problems."

01:21 Walked them through, checked everywhere.

01:22 They were here probably for a couple of hours I suppose, all up.

01:26 And Anthony says that it is a little bit frightening when he's heard that this man was abducted

01:34 and stabbed in the area.

01:36 He says that there definitely has been these sorts of things happening elsewhere as well,

01:40 but he believes that it was probably between groups of people and he certainly hopes that

01:45 it wasn't a random attack.

01:47 We'll obviously hear a little bit further about that.

01:49 When this car crashed here just behind me, four occupants of that stolen car fled, but

01:56 they were very quickly apprehended by police.

01:59 So we have a 17-year-old boy from Ivanhoe and an 18-year-old woman from Preston.

02:05 They're currently assisting police with their inquiries while a 20-year-old man from Northcote,

02:10 which is just the adjoining suburb from here, is being charged with car theft and he's going

02:16 to face the Heidelberg Magistrates Court in February, while a 16-year-old girl from Heidelberg

02:23 Heights has been released pending further inquiries.

02:27 Now this all began around 9.40 last night when we had a car that was a hire car, a silver

02:34 Hyundai, that was notified to police as being stolen by the car hire company.

02:39 They were actually able to track its movement and give police the coordinates.

02:43 So we saw the police helicopter dispatched as well as the dog squad and other people

02:48 and they actually followed this car from a distance.

02:50 So you'd have to say that it was pretty fortunate that they were doing that and were able to

02:55 help that victim so quickly once he came out of the car.

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