Melbourne car attack: If it happens here, how will Singaporeans respond?

Australian police stand near a crashed vehicle after they arrested the driver of a vehicle that had ploughed into pedestrians at a crowded intersection near the Flinders Street train station in central Melbourne PHOTO: REUTERS

I was at Flinders Street station in Melbourne on Monday (Dec 18), with some visiting relatives. I had taken a day off work to show them around.

On Thursday afternoon, I got messages from friends telling me a car had ploughed into pedestrians on the walkway at the junction of Flinders Street and Elizabeth Street. Reports say 19 were injured, some critically. Nine were foreigners, including from South Korea and China.

The driver, Saeed Noori, 32, an Australian citizen of Afghan descent, has been held in police custody.

Victoria state police classified it as a deliberate act (i.e. not an accident). The driver was known to police for assault issues and had mental health issues.

While in police custody, he spoke of the "mistreatment of Muslims" but police said there was no "evidence or any intelligence to indicate a connection with terrorism" as yet.

Across Melbourne, expressions of shock and sympathy unfolded. Flinders Street is iconic to the city. Even tourists know it as home to the centrally-located eponymous train station next to the Yarra river bank and beside Federation Square, an art and museum district with an open air plaza.

Friends swopped notes on when they were last at Flinders Street. Many recalled that just 11 months earlier, a similar car attack had taken place when a car crashed onto the pedestrianised Bourke Street Mall.

Since that attack, state authorities had beefed up controls in the area, putting in bollards to make it harder for vehicles to be driven onto pedestrian walkways teeming with people. A loudspeaker emergency warning system was also set up, although it was not activated on Thursday as the attack was deemed a one-off episode, not a sustained terror attack that would require people to seek refuge from rampaging teams.

Here in Melbourne where I've stayed for the last six weeks, the mood is one of life-goes-on.

There's some anti-Muslim chatter about the driver being from Afghanistan, but on Twitter, the #melbourne-related hashtags are filled with more factual information sharing and expressions of sympathy than vitriol.

I couldn't help wondering how Singaporeans would fare when/if it becomes the scene of an attack. Authorities are preparing people psychologically with a campaign on how it's "when, not if" a terror-related attack breaks out in Singapore. There's also a campaign for people to Run, Hide, Tell if they are caught in an attack.

But how will Singaporeans respond in the heat of an attack?

While scanning the news and watching the videos of the Melbourne car attack, I was struck most by the reactions of those around the attack. While it is human instinct to flee from violence, there was a group who did the opposite.

Video images show a white Suzuki Vitara moving rapidly through the streets and into people. It crashed into a tram stop in the middle of the road and came to a stop. Instead of fleeing from a violent attacker, some people rushed towards the car. Photographs show the car surrounded by people opening the door, dragging the driver out.

An off-duty policeman was among them. He wrestled the driver, dragged him out arrested him. Moments later, uniformed police came. The driver was apparently unarmed, but those who rushed to the car to confront him and stop any further carnage could not have known it.

A woman pedestrian Kat Edwards was at the tram stop near the intersection when she heard the vehicle. She told The Age, a Melbourne daily: "I saw the driver, but I also saw a man lying at a tram stop, so I decided to run towards that man and tend to him."

Reading these reports of people who ran towards the centre of an attack reminded me of the London Bridge attack in June this year, when many bystanders stepped up to fight or try to stop knife-wielding attackers on a rampage. An off-duty serviceman was stabbed all over his body; an Australian nurse died trying to help others; an Asian business journalist suffered a throat gash trying to stop the attackers. There were many others who tried to stop the attackers.

How will Singaporeans react to a mass attack on our streets, by one or a few people armed with knives, or other weapon, or using a vehicle to ram through people? Most of us will run for sure. Will some brave souls step up to stop further killings, or will we stay away to keep our own family and ourselves safe?

Intervening in the hot moments of an attack requires good situational judgment and physical courage. It endangers your own life, and perhaps those around you. It can also mean the difference between no lives lost and many.

Reading the reports, I was struck by another thing: the absence of criticism directed at state and law enforcement authorities.

In Singapore, it has become commonplace to diss the government (including the police) for everything. A sour mood of finger-pointing and negative judgment prevails.

I had expected some criticism of the Melbourne city council or Victoria state authorities. Perhaps questions being asked on why, barely a year after the last car-driven attack, not enough bollards and barriers were put across major iconic streets. Perhaps questions asked on why an emergency warning system installed since that attack had not been activated.

There was very little of such views. Instead, there was widespread acclaim for the heroic off-duty policeman who rushed to confront and arrest the driver.

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