Updated August 25, 2026 — 6:02pm,first published 3:29pm
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A man has been arrested after allegedly punching a 10-year-old boy and repeatedly stabbing his mother with a pair of scissors in Melbourne’s CBD.
Police said the random attack outside Victoria Police’s Spencer Street headquarters on Tuesday afternoon only ended when several passersby intervened.
Police were on the scene quickly to arrest the man.Nine News
Superintendent Zorka Dunstan said the woman’s two other children witnessed the violent assault. The family had been visiting the city from Phillip Island.
“The man was walking south, and as he passed them, he randomly punched the 10-year-old then kept walking. He then turned around, grabbed mother in a headlock and started to stab her repeatedly with a pair of scissors,” Dunstan said.
Dunstan said she learnt of the incident while she was in her office upstairs and went immediately to the scene.
Dunstan said police were horrified by the attack, and grateful that three people came to the family’s aid before police arrived to arrest the alleged attacker.
“We had a citizen immediately intervene, who jumped onto him and just pulled him off the mum, and then the other two added assistance by grabbing him as well,” she said.
“It [was] heroic, without the intervention, it could have been a lot worse, so we are so grateful for their assistance.”
The 10-year-old is recovering at The Royal Children’s Hospital, while his 46-year-old mother is at the nearby Royal Melbourne Hospital with injuries to her back and shoulders. “She was in fairly good spirits given the circumstances,” Dunstan said.
“Within a minute, we had police from the Melbourne West Police Station quickly attend and take over the arrest … and take him into custody immediately.”
The mother was visiting the city from Phillip Island with her three children, aged 10, 11 and 16.
Dunstan said the incident had also traumatised the family. “One of the boys was an 11-year-old, he was crying, I gave him a hug,” she said.
“We took him over to the police museum just to keep him distracted while [his] mum was being treated,” Dunstan told 3AW.
The 27-year-old man from Sunshine West will be interviewed by police.
Dunstan said while the attack was random, the man was known to police in Victoria, NSW and Western Australia.
Liz, an eyewitness who spoke to 3AW, said that she saw a woman with “blood all over her back”.
“She was with a child … [who] was getting taken into another ambulance.
“Luckily, he looked like he was okay, but clearly shaken.”
One of Liz’s work colleagues saw the man getting tackled by a passerby in a citizen’s arrest, she said.
“But it was right outside the cop shop, so the police were there quite quickly.”
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CORRECTION
An earlier version of this story said the mother who was attacked was 30 years old. She is 46. The error was made by Victoria Police.
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