Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Too Close for Comfort

Living in Melbourne and all, I knew that life is undoubtedly not as safe as back home in Brunei or in Perth. Some of you might know from news or read from another medium, but shootings took place yesterday morning in the CBD.

The scary part is that the shootings took place barely two streets away from where I'm staying. It's about 10 min walking distance to the scene of the crime. I've passed that way several times before.

The Age still has extensive articles on the shooting, so if you're curious, you can take a read. The gunman is still on the loose, and he might still be in the city or have ran off to the suburbs. Two victims remain in serious condition at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, while a solicitor died from his wounds as a result of being a Good Samaritan. One of the victims was just an innocent bystander, a Dutch backpacker. It's tragic. The man who fired the rounds has a criminal past and is a bikie.

It's scary because my housemate related to me that she would have been on the very same scene (the corner of William Street and Flinders Lane) had she had an exam yesterday morning, at the exact same time, because she would have to pass that way to go for her exam.

We stay on Degraves Street. After Degraves is Elizabeth St., then Queen St., then William St. Perpendicular to Degraves is Flinders Lane.

I was still sleeping when she heard the news, through my other housemate who had went out earlier that morning to study in the uni library. We were advised not to go out. From the news on TV, you can see that the city streets were deserted, an almost alien scene for what would usually be a bustling, lively Monday morning in the city, as the police cordoned off streets. It's almost surreal. We went out later in the evening to run some errands. Roads were already reopened, and the city was back to normal - as normal as could be.

Today, the suspect's car was found just around the corner of Flinders Lane and Elizabeth St.; the suspect and his victim have been ascertained to have stayed at a hotel on Flinders Lane itself.

It's all too close to home, and too close for comfort. Let's pray that the gunman will be apprehended soon.

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