Terrorism still not ruled out in Thursday Melbourne car attack

SYDNEY - Australian police were investigating Friday whether there was any terrorism-related motive behind the car ramming attack on Melbourne pedestrians that left 12 people in a hospital, three of them in critical condition.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull condemned the "despicable and cowardly act." Nine of the 19 people originally injured Thursday were foreigners.

Victoria state police Acting Chief Commissioner Shane Patton said on Thursday night that early indications were the driver of the car, a 32-year-old Australian citizen of Afghan descent with a history of drug abuse and mental health issues, was not motivated by terrorism. He said the ramming was being treated as a "singular" incident.

On Friday morning, however, Patton said the man had made several utterances while under police guard in a hospital on Thursday night, including mentioning poor treatment of Muslims, and that police were still exploring terrorism as a possible motive.

"He made some utterances in respect to a number of matters," Patton told Australia's Channel Nine television network. "He spoke of dreams and voices but also attributed some of his activities as well due to the mistreatment of Muslims."

Asked if there were links to terrorism, he said: "That's certainly one area we're exploring in respect to motivation."

But he added: "We haven't identified any extremist links with this man. We haven't identified him linked to any groups. We haven't identified anyone inciting him to do any actions, or any prior extremist activities."

Seven of the 19 people admitted to the hospital were discharged overnight. Melbourne media reported three patients remained in critical condition, including an 83-year-old man, and that a 4-year-old boy's condition had improved from critical to stable.

Police said nine foreigners were among the injured, including from South Korea, China, Italy, India, Venezuela, Ireland and New Zealand.

Turnbull said the man had come to Australia as a refugee, "through normal refugee programs, not people smugglers."

The Associated Press