Two men in hospital after being stabbed inside Melbourne shopping centre

Two men were rushed to the hospital and are said to be in a stable condition after being stabbed inside a shopping centre in Melbourne, Australia, at around 8am on Monday.

The incident took place in Barkly Square in the Brunswick area of Melbourne. One of victims is a shopper and the other a guard.

The shopper, identified as a 60-year-old man, was standing in the queue of the supermarket when a person in his close proximity stabbed him, according to 9News network.

“He turned around and was allegedly stabbed in the upper body by a man who was in the queue,” Victoria Police said in a statement quoted by the local news network. “The victim moved away and the alleged offender ran from the store.”

The second victim of the stabbing, a security guard, was reportedly attacked when he confronted the aggressor after hearing screams from the supermarket.

The police confirmed the arrest of a 20-year-old suspect in relation to the stabbing. However, the motive behind the attack is still unclear.

“The alleged offender was arrested at the scene and has been conveyed to hospital with self-inflicted wounds,” the Victoria Police said. Police are not looking for anyone else in relation to the incident and there is no threat to the community, they said.

Eyewitnesses quoted by various news outlets said they heard screams and yelling in the supermarket.

“At the start, we just heard screaming but we didn’t think much of it,” Jess, a worker at the Meatwell butchers, was quoted by the Guardian as saying. “There was all just the yelling and then someone from Woolworths goes, ‘Run, there is someone with a knife, get back!’”

The staffers were hiding in the store till the police arrived, according to various accounts published in the local media. The police eventually negotiated with the attacker in an electronic store and only managed to arrest him after using a taser.