Melbourne’s gang wars heat up as a car is set alight and shots are fired outside the home of an alleged underworld figure
Melbourne's underworld war has reignited after a car outside a home linked to an alleged gang figure was set on fire in what police say was a targeted attack.
Emergency services were called to a house in Fawkner, in the city's north, at around 3.30am on Thursday after a Toyota Camry parked in the driveway caught fire with the accelerator on.
Shocked witnesses claimed gunshots were fired before the car caught fire. Police suspect that an unknown number of hitmen fled in a getaway car.
A second Toyota Camry was found burnt out a short time later near a local primary school on Lowson Street.
A car outside a house allegedly linked to gangster Mohammed Oueida was set on fire early Thursday morning
Police are investigating whether a white Toyota Camry found burnt out on nearby Lowson Street is linked to the earlier incident
Police are investigating whether the car fires are related to a nighttime shooting five days earlier in the home in which the front door was peppered with bullets.
The address is linked to alleged Melbourne underworld figure Mohammed Oueida, who is currently behind bars in Western Australia accused of drug trafficking.
Police say a man shot at the home while his armed accomplice tried to break in.
The empty-handed pair then fled the scene in an allegedly stolen Suzuki Swift, which was later found burnt out in Broadmeadows.
The pair remain on the run for five days.
Three people who were home at the time of the shooting were not injured.
βAt this stage, police believe the incidents were targeted,β the statement said.
The blue car was doused with accelerant and set on fire by an unknown group of perpetrators
A white Toyota Camry was found burned outside a nearby elementary school a short time later
Separate crime scenes remained in place at the cordoned-off house and outside the school in Lowson Street on Thursday morning.
The heavily damaged cars remained at their respective locations.
The latest incident has left local residents fearing for their safety.
“I don't feel safe here right now,” one man told police Herald Sun.
“What's going to happen the third time?”
“This is about terror, you just don't need a gun to smash a car window.”
This is not the first time that properties allegedly linked to Oueida have been targeted.
Luxury cars and two other homes were bombed in 2018, resulting in more than $100,000 in damage.
A year earlier, Oueida was shot in the stomach as she left a mosque.
Anyone with any information, CCTV or dashcam footage of any of the latest incidents is urged to contact Crime Stoppers.
The Fawkner house where the first car was set on fire was the target of a late night shooting five days earlier. Detectives are pictured at the scene on Thursday