Updated ,first published
Four teenagers have been arrested following the death of a man after a fight broke out outside Mernda railway station in Melbourne’s north-east.
Police were called to the incident on Bridge Inn Road about 5.50pm on Friday, when passersby reported groups of boys or men fighting.
They found one 22-year-old man unconscious with serious injuries, and paramedics attempted to revive him. However, he died at the scene.
Homicide Squad detectives were on the way to Mernda on Friday evening. Police said their investigation into what happened was ongoing, but four males have been arrested, including a 16-year-old, an 18-year-old and two 17-year-olds.
Bridge Inn Road backs onto the railway station’s car park, which is opposite two early learning centres.
Newbie Nest Early Learning and Kindergarten owner Sukhdeep Kaur said her centre was luckily not operating to usual hours on Friday, when the incident would have otherwise coincided with parents picking their children up.
It was often the case children had to sit in their families’ queuing cars for a few minutes during pick-up, in full view of the station’s car park, Kaur said.
“If they [saw] something or they were confronted or something outside of childcare … you cannot get rid of these kind of traumas,” she said. “It’s a horrible thing.”
A resident of the nearby Ehipassiko Buddhist monastery, who asked not to be named, said he drove past the scene and saw police and State Emergency Service crews erecting a marquee.
He assumed whatever happened was an accident, before he discovered police were investigating it as a homicide. “It’s shocking news,” he said.
Ashley, who lives within metres of the station and asked for her surname not to be published, said it had become unsafe even to send her teenager to the local shops.
Her family were inside their home at the time of the fight, but heard sirens.
“It’s sad, kids can’t be kids,” she said. “We try and encourage kids to get off devices and play outside, but now [they] can’t do that either.”
Police asked Metro Trains to stop services between Mernda and South Morang about 8pm, two hours after the incident. Buses were replacing trains, with delays of more than an hour.
Victoria Police urged anyone who witnessed the incident to come forward.
To accommodate protective services officers patrolling Melbourne’s shopping centres, the Allan government in November scrapped the Baillieu-era policy of having them at every train station in the suburban network overnight.
Instead, PSOs are present at 32 stations from 9am until last service, and another 72 have officers from 6pm until the last train. In the remaining “low-crime rate” 120 stations, officers operate in mobile clusters, with each team moving between six stations.
PSOs patrol Mernda railway station after 6pm, a police spokesman confirmed on Friday.
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