Five people, including two children, have died and others have been injured after a car crashed into a pub's beer garden in regional Victoria.
Emergency service crews rushed to the Royal Daylesford Hotel in Daylesford, northwest of Melbourne, on Sunday evening after an SUV crashed into the beer garden.
The white BMW mounted the kerb and struck patrons, killing two men, a woman, a boy thought to be six years old and a teenage girl.
Seven others were injured, including the driver of the car, a 66-year-old Mount Macedon man.
Superintendent John Fitzpatrick said police were waiting to speak to the driver, who had non-life-threatening injuries, and were still trying to determine what happened.
A boy was flown to hospital with critical injuries while a man, a woman and a boy had non-life-threatening injuries.
Victoria Ambulance regional director Trever Weston said initial emergency crews were confronted with a chaotic scene.
He commended the efforts of bystanders, who came to the aid of the injured until ambulance paramedics arrived.
"(Injuries were) quite traumatic for a number of those patients, particularly the four that were airlifted to hospital," he told reporters on Monday morning.
He said Daylesford was a close-knit community and some of the initial crews were from the area.
"You never want to respond to any incident like this but certainly not in your home town," Mr Weston said.
Paramedics will be offered welfare support in coming days and weeks.
"Any incident involving children is that next level of distress for our paramedics but the crews that responded last night did so professionally and provided the best care they could for all of those patients," Mr Weston said.
Hepburn Shire Mayor Brian Hood said Daylesford would have been crowded on Sunday, with many people enjoying the warm evening over the unofficial Melbourne Cup long weekend.
"This will send shock waves through the community for some time," he told ABC TV.
Police have asked the public to avoid Daylesford so emergency services can access the scene.
Infrastructure Minister Catherine King, whose federal Ballarat electorate includes Daylesford, asked the community to follow advice from emergency services as crews carry out their work.
"My thoughts are with all those at the scene, their friends and families and the broader Daylesford community," she said in a statement on X.
Anyone who witnessed the crash or has dashcam or CCTV footage is urged to contact Crime Stoppers.