![\"Wai](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/wai-lai-was-walking-to-work-in-the-melbourne-cbd-when-she-wa-7RJG5CLC5RH7NIRMLDOSCLVJBI.jpg\")
<\/p>\nA woman accused of randomly stabbing a worker walking along a city street has been charged, as a state premier slammed the “sickening” act.<\/p>\n
Wan Lai, from West Melbourne, was on her way to work in the CBD at 7.40am on October 2 when someone ran up from behind and stabbed her in the upper body in an apparent random attack.<\/p>\n
CCTV footage shows the attacker, wearing all black, then running off while Lai crouches over on the street before a bystander comes up to help. <\/p>\n
The 36-year-old victim was taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries and has since been discharged.<\/p>\n
Police arrested and charged a 32-year-old Melbourne woman with two counts of intentionally causing injury and committing an offence while on bail.<\/p>\n
A knife was also seized by officers who conducted an extensive search of the area.<\/p>\n
The accused appeared at the Melbourne Magistrates Court and was remanded in custody.<\/p>\n
‘Undeniable’ rise in crime<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Wai Lai was walking to work in the Melbourne CBD when she was stabbed. (Source: Nine)<\/p>\n
The attack has added to a raft of high-profile crimes in Victoria, which has recorded a near-16% jump in criminal offences in the 12 months to June 30, according to crime statistics data.<\/p>\n
The premier has condemned the act of violence as “absolutely sickening”, sending her support to Lai and her family.<\/p>\n
“No one who commits brazen, violent acts like this should be on the streets,” Jacinta Allan said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Melbourne Lord Mayor Nick Reece maintained the city remains safe and spruiked his policy of introducing more CCTV cameras and new community safety officers.<\/p>\n
“By any international comparison, Melbourne is a very safe city, but we have seen a rise in the crime rate that is undeniable,” he told ABC radio Melbourne.<\/p>\n
Opposition Leader Brad Battin said Victoria is the nation’s “crime capital”, a term his federal counterpart Sussan Ley used during her recent visit to the state to shine a spotlight on the issue.<\/p>\n
“Everyone’s talking about it, no matter where you go in the community… people are starting to fear that this is generally what Victoria is becoming, particularly in Melbourne,” he said.<\/p>\n
“There’s no one in the country that’s close to us. Victoria stands alone.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A woman accused of randomly stabbing a worker walking along a city street has been charged, as a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":83865,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[85,67,42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-83864","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-australia","9":"tag-crime-and-justice","10":"tag-headlines","11":"tag-news","12":"tag-top-news","13":"tag-top-stories","14":"tag-topnews","15":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83864","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=83864"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83864\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83865"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83864"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83864"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83864"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}