news

Truck collides with tram at Royal Park in Melbourne.

Up to 20 people are being assessed by paramedics after a truck collided with a tram at Parkville in Melbourne’s inner-north this morning.

Police said the incident on Elliot Avenue, near Melbourne Zoo, happened just before 8:00am.

Ambulance Victoria said most of the those being assessed have minor injuries.

The area is closed the motorists are being told to avoid the area.

Jennifer, who was near the scene, told ABC Radio Melbourne she heard a series of four to six bumps in a row and went to the accident.

“I just thought this has got to be like seven or eight cars,” she said.

“We couldn’t see it, so we walked down towards the corner of Elliott Avenue and the tram tracks and there was the tram with 50 people standing outside of it and completely off the tracks by 6 or 7 metres.”

She described the scene as a “huge mess”.

“[There was] a truck that was on its side that had obviously gone into the tram pushed it over with all of its contents of [what looks like] asphalt spilt on the ground and everyone just standing around,” she said.

“There were a couple of emergency people here from the fire brigade and the truck’s completely covered the tram tracks and the tram’s three-quarters off the tracks.

“The tram doors are wrecked but amazingly the tram’s sort of in one piece except for the wheels are off.”

She said the driver was sitting near the tram “completely in shock”.

“There are another few people lying around. But it seems like they’re mainly impact kind of injuries, I only saw one woman with blood on her,” she said.

“I walked up to one girl who was just crying and she was at the front of the tram standing up and she just remembers someone screaming and then she just basically said next thing she remembers was sitting on the tram floor.”

Yarra Trams said the number 58 trams are operating in sections between West Coburg to Royal Park station and Toorak to the Royal Children’s Hospital, following the incident.

This post originally appeared on ABC News.


© 2017 Australian Broadcasting Corporation. All rights reserved. Read the ABC Disclaimer here