Four people have been killed after a car was deliberately driven into pedestrians in Melbourne’s Bourke Street Mall, Australia, police say.

A young child is among the four people who are dead.

It is believed 26-year-old Dimitrious Gargasoulas, also known as James, was the driver. Police have not confirmed his identity.

Police said they shot the suspect before he was arrested on Bourke St. He is under police guard in hospital.

They said he had been linked to an early morning stabbing in the city’s south.

A man and a woman, both in their 30s, and the child, were killed in different locations along Bourke St, Police Commissioner Graham Ashton said.

Twenty-four people were taken to hospital, with five understood to be in a critical condition.

The injured were taken to The Alfred, St Vincent’s, Royal Melbourne and Royal Children’s hospitals.

According to the Australia Broadcasting Corporation (ABC), a three-month-old is being operated on after being rushed to the hospital in a police car and a two-year-old is in intensive care.

Commissioner Ashton said at 1:45pm the vehicle entered the city driving erratically and did “burnouts” on the corner of Swanston and Flinders streets