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| Greenacre crash: 10 people injured after car smashes into hijab store in western Sydney | |
| (32 minutes later) | |
| Car appeared to accelerate away from traffic lights directly into shopfront in Greenacre | Car appeared to accelerate away from traffic lights directly into shopfront in Greenacre |
| Ten people have been injured, at least one seriously, after a car crashed into a hijab store in Sydney’s west on Thursday afternoon. | |
| Emergency services said they were treating a driver and 11 pedestrians, after a four-wheel drive drove into Hijab House in Greenacre, on the corner of Waterloo and Boronia roads, shortly after 3pm on Thursday. | Emergency services said they were treating a driver and 11 pedestrians, after a four-wheel drive drove into Hijab House in Greenacre, on the corner of Waterloo and Boronia roads, shortly after 3pm on Thursday. |
| Those injured in the store were mostly women, aged between 18 and 30, according to the NSW ambulance service. Two people are reportedly seriously injured, though none of the injuries is considered life-threatening. | |
| NSW Police said there was no initial indication the crash was terror-related. | NSW Police said there was no initial indication the crash was terror-related. |
| However, police superintendent Murray Reynolds told 2GB radio from the scene he believed the crash might have been intentional, and its cause would be the subject of police investigation.“What we do know is a people mover that appears to deliberately run into the cars in front of it, it pushed a car out of the way,” Reynolds said.“It does appear that it’s [been] done deliberately but potentially it could be a medical episode,” he said. | |
| Vision circulating on social media showed a dark four-wheel-drive, its tyres smoking, burning rubber in stopped traffic, pushing a white sedan in front of it into the intersection. | Vision circulating on social media showed a dark four-wheel-drive, its tyres smoking, burning rubber in stopped traffic, pushing a white sedan in front of it into the intersection. |
| The vehicle then appeared to accelerate straight into the glass doors at the front of the shop. | |
| Video footage shot from inside the store following the accident showed women lying on the floor with blood on their feet. One woman cradled another as she held her hand over her face. | |
| The footage showed men picking through the rubble as a man in a white tracksuit and cap sat in the driver’s seat of the car. | |
| Amer Kourouche, a real estate agent who works across the road from Hijab House, said he was inside when he heard the noise from the accident.“I ran outside and saw the car had gone through the shop,” he said. “There was a lot of glass everywhere, people gathering around. My colleagues went in to try and help the people inside. | |
| “There was some women bleeding on the floor of the shop and I think one was trapped. I’m not sure if they were bleeding because of the accident or because of the glass. The driver, he was trapped as well.” | |
| Shahmar Abas, who works at a juice stand on the corner opposite Hijab House said he watched as smoke poured from one of the cars before it drove into the store. | |
| “I saw everything. I was at the traffic lights and there was smoke coming everywhere. Huge smoke. Very heavy smoke,” he said. | |
| “Then the other car, the white one in front, moves away and he shot away from the traffic light and I don’t know if he lost control or what. I went over there after and I see a few people, one of them looked unconscious.” | |
| Hijab House said both customers and staff had been injured.“The community is shaken and management is working to make sense of this tragedy,” read a statement posted on Facebook.“The important thing is everyone is still alive.” | |
| Fire and Rescue NSW said one person was trapped inside the car following the crash. | |
| “The male driver and 11 pedestrians have been injured. They are currently being treated at the scene; however, their injuries are not believed to be life-threatening.” | “The male driver and 11 pedestrians have been injured. They are currently being treated at the scene; however, their injuries are not believed to be life-threatening.” |