The man suspected of setting fire to a Melbourne bank, leaving 27 people injured, is believed to be an asylum seeker who came to Australia by boat.
Federal government sources say the 21-year-old Springvale man is an asylum seeker from Myanmar living in the community on a bridging visa. It's understood he arrived in 2012 or 2013 and spent time in the Christmas Island detention centre.
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CCTV shows moment before Springvale bank fire
Retrieving the accelerant he would use to set himself alight, CCTV from a local cafe shows the alleged arsonist moments before he entered the Springvale Commonwealth Bank. Vision courtesy Seven News, Melbourne.
On Saturday morning, two people were still fighting for their lives after the fire at the Commonwealth Bank in Springvale on Friday.
Six people with serious burns were taken to The Alfred hospital following the blaze, including the man allegedly responsible for lighting the fire in the busy bank about 11:30am.
Police are yet to interview the man due to his serious injuries.
Acting Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce declined to publicly confirm the man was an asylum seeker, but said it was a tragedy so many people had been left with burns.
"There's nothing more disturbing than a burns ward. Maybe he had lost his mind - you'd have to lose your mind to do something so cruel," Mr Joyce told reporters in Darwin.
Those seriously injured included two men in their 20s, a man in his 60s, a man in his 70s, another man and a woman in her 20s.
The Alfred hospital confirmed on Saturday that one patient remains in the hospital's specialist burns unit in a critical condition, one patient is in a critical but stable condition and four patients are listed as stable.
Three children and several people in their 80s were also among 27 people injured in the fire.
The nightmare began about 11:30am, when the fire began at the Commonwealth Bank branch near Springvale Central.
People were carried from the bank on Springvale Road on stretchers, as paramedics and firefighters treated more than a dozen others on the footpath.
An Alfred staff member told Fairfax Media the large influx of patients from the Springvale fire had left hospital staff scrambling to discharge or relocate as many patients as possible to ensure enough high acuity beds were available for the burn victims.
Ten women and one man were taken to Dandenong Hospital in a stable condition while eight women and two men were taken to the Monash Medical Centre, also in a stable condition.
Paul Carrigg, operations manager of Dandenong CFA, told reporters there had been an explosion and confirmed that a liquid accelerant was used to start the blaze.
He said it was "amazing", and "very lucky" there have so far been no fatalities.
State Health Commander Paul Holman said 25 ambulances were sent to the scene as Ambulance Victoria activated its emergency response plan to the highest level, due to the sheer number of people injured.
"We also activated our Ambulance Emergency Operations Centre to co-ordinate our response to the incident, taking pressure off our dispatch of ambulances to other emergencies," he said.
"Paramedics have also spoken to nearby shopkeepers and a school to check on the welfare of those who might have witnessed the incident which would've been quite distressing."