00:02A major police operation in the heart of Melbourne CBD.
00:07Officers swarming the corner of Flinders Street and Elizabeth Street
00:10after an out of control car struck a pedestrian
00:13before coming dangerously close to marathon runners.
00:17It was really terrible. People were screaming on the road.
00:20It was so scary and everybody started running around.
00:24Police say the car had been stolen from a Cranbourne South business.
00:28Behind the wheel is alleged a 16 year old boy
00:31who witnesses say was driving erratically through the city
00:34hitting signs and bins and forcing terrified pedestrians to run for safety.
00:40There was obviously people on that tram line right there in between there
00:43that had to duck in to avoid him because no regard for anyone when he was driving.
00:47Absolutely not.
00:48A woman aged in her 50s was struck at the intersection
00:51and was taken to hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
00:54The car fleeing and later forcing its way up Flinders Lane into oncoming traffic
00:59striking several parked cars, its rear already heavily damaged.
01:04She was in the centre of the road and he didn't even look at her.
01:08He just hit her and ran.
01:11Witnesses say the car came speeding up Flinders Street
01:14before coming to a screeching stop here at the barrier
01:16just metres from where thousands of marathon runners
01:19had been making their way through the city.
01:21The car has then done a U-turn before making its way back down Flinders Street.
01:26Bystanders say they were then forced to pull the injured woman off the street
01:29to stop her from being struck again.
01:32Like eight, nine, ten of us all just grabbing her and moving her off the road
01:36just before he came back.
01:38Quite heroic of the people to actually get the woman off the road
01:41because she would have been ran over again.
01:42The 16-year-old driver was later arrested in Albert Park.
01:46Police say the incident was not an act of terrorism or a targeted attack.
