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As the car backed up, its open door flailing, a child drew a sharp breath – before students started screaming.
The car, a stolen Kia Optima, smashed into the side of a school bus at Newtown in Geelong’s inner west on Thursday afternoon as a man and a woman inside the car allegedly tried to escape from police.
An officer stepped out from behind a fence metres from the bus’s window, firing two gunshots before someone yelled, “Everyone down, everyone down”, and other students wailed.
A camera held by a girl on the bus became trained on the seat in front of her as students took cover.
Anthony Baric was in the next street over sitting at traffic lights when he saw the car “fly over the footpath”.
“It took out a traffic light, just flattened it, and then hit another car in the middle of the intersection. Their car was just a write-off from there,” Baric told The Age.
Earlier, he saw police officers run into an adjacent street with their guns drawn, and heard “two pops”, but he wasn’t sure they fired until he saw a video filmed by his daughter’s friend.
She was on the school bus along with other secondary students from Sacred Heart College and St Joseph’s College in Geelong. The nearby Matthew Flinders Girls Secondary College serves as a bus interchange for surrounding schools.
Even though his daughter wasn’t on the bus, Baric said she was shaken up by the incident. She is in year 10, while all three schools cater to students between years 7 and 12.
“You can hear the fear in the kids on the bus – they were petrified.”
A police helicopter spotted the stolen Kia near the intersection of the Princes Highway and Roebuck Street in Newtown about 3.40pm, before it reversed into the bus.
The car was driven at police officers, who fired before the vehicle collided with another car, Victoria Police alleged.
The 37-year-old man and woman inside – both from NSW – were said to have tried to run before police arrested them. The man was shot in the arm, but his injuries were not life-threatening, police said. He was taken to hospital under police guard alongside the woman, who sustained minor injuries.
A woman driving the car the Kia hit was also taken to hospital with minor injures.
“Armed crime squad detectives will investigate the incident with Professional Standards Command oversight, as is standard practice when a police firearm is discharged,” police said in a statement.
An Education Department spokeswoman confirmed no students or staff were injured in the incident, but “precautionary student safety procedures” were implemented given it happened near Matthew Flinders and the bus interchange.
“The wellbeing of students and staff is always our highest priority, and support will be available to anyone who needs it tomorrow,” the spokeswoman said.
The pursuit was the second incident to scare Baric and his daughter in two days, after a woman was found dead at Eastern Beach on Wednesday. A 53-year-old homeless man was later arrested and charged with murder.
The man is due to appear in Geelong Magistrates’ Court on Friday.
Baric was down at the waterfront when he saw the woman’s body being taken away on Wednesday. “[My daughter is] always looking at what’s going on, and then this happened today,” he said.
“It’s very worrying.”
Anyone with footage of the police pursuit is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or submit an online confidential report at www.crimestoppersvic.com.au.
The car was allegedly stolen from NSW.
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