Girls arrested, boys flee after 'cowardly' fatal crash
One man is dead, two teenage girls are under arrest and up to four males are on the run after an allegedly stolen car crashed into another in Melbourne's east.
The Jeep Grand Cherokee crashed into another vehicle at the intersection of Warrigal Rd and Highbury Rd at Burwood about 7pm on Tuesday.
Police said the Jeep was travelling fast and erratically when it crashed into the second vehicle, killing the driver, who was the sole occupant.
He is yet to be formally identified.
There were up to six teens in the Jeep with four males fleeing after the crash.
Two 15-year-old girls were arrested as they allegedly tried to run away, with a witness managing to catch one.
Police described the decision of the occupants to allegedly flee the scene and leave a dying man as "absolutely cowardly".
"It was high-impact, high-speed impact. They know someone would have been hurt in that vehicle ... to leave a person either injured or killed is cowardly, it's absolutely cowardly," Detective Senior Sergeant Christian Von Tunk said.
The Jeep was allegedly stolen during an aggravated home burglary in Cranbourne South last week before being used in two armed robberies in Ormond and Ripponlea on June 30.
Police said they have funnelled "a lot of resources" into tracking down the males involved and warned their friends and family to urge them to come forward.
"Anyone known to the people in that vehicle, if you know those people tell them to come forward to the police, we want to speak to those people," Det Sen Sgt Von Tunk said.
The teenage girls are known to police and were taken to hospital under police guard before being released and taken into custody.
Housing Minister Harriet Shing said the collision was "absolutely devastating" and asked anyone who had information to come forward.
"We want to make sure that we are able to understand what happened," she told reporters.
"We have the lowest youth offending rate in Australia, however, we also know that it is a very small group who are persistent offenders."
Child and youth crime has continued to rise in Victoria over the past year, according to figures released by the Crime Statistics Agency in June.
The number of offenders in the 15 to 17 age cohort in the 12-month period has risen by almost 25 per cent to 15,495.
However, a core group of repeat offenders committed more serious and violent crimes, including robberies, aggravated burglaries, and car thefts, predominantly in the east and outer-southeast suburbs, the data revealed.
