Australia police: Melbourne attacker also planned explosion

SYDNEY (AP) — Police say a man who fatally stabbed another and injured two others in central Melbourne had also planned to set off an explosion.

Police say 30-year-old Hassain Khalif Shire Ali got out of a pickup vehicle, which then caught fire, and stabbed three men, one of whom died at the scene on Friday.

Victoria state Police Commissioner Graham Ashton says Shire Ali, who was shot by police and died in a hospital, had also planned for his vehicle to explode, but gas cylinders in the back of his pickup failed to ignite.

Ashton says the attacker was known to police partly because his brother Ali Khalif Shire Ali faced court this year in Melbourne accused of plotting an attack.