Sydney, Jan 29 (DPA) A four-year-old child died Thursday after being thrown by her father from Melbourne’s highest bridge.
Motorists were horrified when a car stopped in the morning rush hour and the girl was flung 50 metres into the Yarra River below.
The 36-year-old man was arrested an hour later and has been charged with murder.
Two children aged six and eight were with him in the car and witnessed their sister being thrown from the bridge.
Within 10 minutes the girl was pulled from the water. Paramedics worked on her for 45 minutes but she died in hospital some time later.
“This is a dreadful set of circumstances, and often you think you’ve seen it all but you haven’t,” Detective Inspector Steve Clark said. “There have been some ongoing Family Court matters, as I understand it, between the father and his wife.”
Clark told reporters that fellow motorists had no chance of stopping what they saw happening. “It all happened fairly quickly, as I understand it, nobody had the opportunity,” Clark said. “He got straight out of the car, taken the young girl and walked to the edge of the bridge.”