A man allegedly carjacked a stranger’s vehicle while two children were with him before leading police on a pursuit through western Sydney, where he is accused of crashing and stabbing a bystander.
New South Wales Police were called to carry out a welfare check on a 36-year-old driver in Belmore on Saturday afternoon. The driver, who had two children in the vehicle, allegedly failed to stop, prompting officers to follow him towards Auburn.
“The pursuit continued into Auburn before it was terminated due to the manner of the man’s driving,” an NSW Police spokesman said.
The man allegedly drove on the wrong side of the M4 Motorway before colliding with an oncoming vehicle. He then allegedly tried to take another car when a 25-year-old man intervened.
A struggle followed and the bystander suffered a stab wound. Footage filmed by a passenger in a nearby vehicle showed several people attempting to intervene as the confrontation unfolded in the road.
One bystander managed to separate one of the children from the man while pleading with him. The man appeared to be holding an object believed to be a knife in one hand while gripping the second child’s hand with the other.
He later took the child back from the bystander, waving the knife as he slowly moved backwards.
The man then forced his two children into a stranger’s car, where a woman was sitting behind the wheel. He entered the passenger seat and the woman began driving away.
The vehicle briefly stopped when the driver’s door opened and the woman fell from the car, landing on her back. Smoke began billowing from the rear before the vehicle moved off again, with the man allegedly taking control.
He drove west along the M4 before stopping on the Cumberland Highway at Wentworthville.
An off-duty police officer arrested the man, who was taken to hospital under police guard. The two children were also taken to Westmead Children’s Hospital with minor injuries.
