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An attack on a Melbourne bank that resulted in 27 injuries should not be used as a "political weapon", Victoria's Premier has urged.
21-year old Nur Islam remains in hospital under heavy police protection after he allegedly doused himself in petrol and set himself on fire at the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA) branch in Springvale in Melbourne's southeast.
26 people inside the bank at the time of the incident were hurt by the fire with six sustaining serious burns two of who remain in a critical condition.
Daniel Andrews, Victoria's Premier, said that the incident should not be linked to terrorism, saying it was an isolated tragedy.
"I would urge everybody to look at this as an isolated act, because that is exactly what it is," Andrews told reporters.
Commonwealth Bank of Australia branch in Springvale in Melbourne's southeast. Photo:newschicken.com
"It is not a commentary, and it oughtn't be used as a political weapon by anybody who finds fault with any of the policy settings we have at the moment.
"This is a tragedy, nothing more, nothing less."
Fairfax Media revealed that Islam, a Rohingya man from Myanmar, had arrived in Australia as an unaccompanied minor in 2013.
He spent time in detention centers n Christmas Island and Weipa before settling in Melbourne where he was living with other asylum seekers from Myanmar.
Joseph Joseph, one of Islam's housemates, said he was mentally ill and becoming increasingly distressed about money.
"He said, 'why the government give money to me and the bank not give me'," Joseph told Fairfax Media.
Islam had reportedly been acting strangely in recent weeks, often walking alone late at night and seeing ghosts.
He has poor English skills and was relying on 315 U.S. dollars a week in government payouts, which he believed were not being paid.
(APD)
