Man arrested after stolen Landcruiser driven through Melbourne shopping centre
Police are hunting the driver of a stolen car after he drove through a major shopping centre in Melbourne's northern suburbs.
Moderated by Tomas Kauer 
Police have arrested a man accused of stealing a white four-wheel drive and driving it through a shopping centre to evade police yesterday in Melbourne's north.
The incident began when police were called to reports of a stolen Toyota Landcruiser outside Northland Shopping Centre in Preston about 4pm yesterday.
That car was later discovered abandoned in Beavers Road in Northcote shortly after 5pm yesterday.
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Police believe the vehicle was stolen from an address in Ivanhoe East on June 2.
Officers attempted to block the vehicle in and arrest the driver, who then made his getaway by driving through the middle of the centre after ramming a police car "multiple times".
Following investigations overnight, police arrested a 27-year-old East Melbourne man this morning and seized an electronic key reprogramming tool.
It is believed the tool was used to steal the Landcruiser without the vehicle's keys.
He has not yet been charged and police are not looking for anybody else connected to the incident.
Witness accounts from the incident yesterday say they initially thought they were under attack.
"It sounded like gunshots," a witness told 9News.
Another witness said she "just heard people yelling and crying".
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Remarkably, no one was hit in the incident.
Paramedics assessed two people at the scene, including a woman who was treated for shock.
"We were just trying to make sure everyone was fine, there was no one that was hit," one witness said.
After smashing through doors into Northland, the car was captured on video smashing through another set of glass doors at the other end, where it left the centre, almost flattening a bollard on the way out.
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It's the second security incident at the centre in a month, after a machete brawl broke out, sparking a snap ban on the sale of the weapons in Victoria.
"Not long ago, there was the big machete attack and now this, it's just scary," a shopper told 9News.
A spokesperson from Northland Shopping Centre's operator Vicinity Centres stressed the centre was not put into lockdown over the incident and would remain operating under normal trading hours while police were on site.
"While we are taking this matter very seriously, the centre was not locked down and is open and trading," a spokesperson said in a statement.
"To support ongoing police investigations, two entry points from the car park and some tenancies have been temporarily closed.
"The safety and wellbeing of our customer and community is our top priority."
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