For 33-year-old Saurabh Anand a trip to his local shopping centre became a matter of life and death.
"It is a trauma of hell that I went through," Mr Anand told 7.30.
At about 8pm on a Saturday night, the sales representative collected his prescription at Central Square Shopping Centre in Melbourne's inner west when a group of teenage boys allegedly attacked him with a machete.
"My hand was literally hanging there with my skin," he said.
"I used my other hand to feel all the damage that was done.
"I couldn't feel any sensation in my wrist or fingers."
Until now, he's been too scared to identify himself, but a fortnight on from the attack, Mr Anand is speaking out.
He shared confronting photos with 7.30, showing how his arm was nearly severed in the alleged attack.
Mr Anand was rushed to the Royal Melbourne Hospital for surgery and has told 7.30 he cannot believe he still has his hand.
"To be very honest, I cannot believe that whatever instinctive reaction or safety mode I went into got me to a position where I was able to keep my hand together," he said.
Four teenagers, all aged between 14 and 15, have been charged with offences ranging from assault to robbery.
Mr Anand is in Melbourne on a temporary visa and has a limited support network, so his mother flew in from New Delhi late last week to care for him.
In her first media interview since her son's attack, Kirun Anand said she feared the worst after learning of the incident through global news reports.
"He's my only son and he's my life," Ms Anand told 7.30.
"It is everything for me after the death of my husband, he has (been) gone 15 years."
Mr Anand says having his mother here under these circumstances is heartbreaking.
"She cries every night and every day seeing my condition because no parent would want their kids to be in such a state," he said.
'Not safe anywhere'
Steve Devono is a regular customer at the Central Square Shopping Centre and says he fears for his safety after what happened to Mr Anand.
"You're not safe anywhere. Anywhere. I reckon it was terrible what they've done to that man," Mr Devono told 7.30.
In the wake of the alleged attack, Victoria Police confirmed they have increased patrols in the area.
Mr Devono says their presence is welcome.
"I reckon they should be here more often. They should be here seven days a week," he said.
Traders have told 7.30 that there is only one security guard employed full-time by the centre, between 12pm and 7:30pm.
7.30 requested an interview and put written questions to Central Square Shopping Centre about this claim, but it declined to respond.
Local florist Igli Musa says one security guard at the centre, which has more than 50 traders, isn't enough.
"I do think that maybe security needs to be increased a little bit, especially during school holidays when these things tend to happen more," he said.
Mr Musa also believes security guards should have more powers and resources.
"I have done my security course before, and what we get taught, I think security guards should have a little bit more power when it comes to jumping into situations and having that power to detain," he told 7.30.
Knife crime an 'ongoing problem'
The alleged machete attack on Mr Anand follows other high-profile incidents inside major shopping centres across the nation.
The chief executive of the peak body Shopping Centre Council of Australia, Angus Nardi, declined an interview request from 7.30 but acknowledged knife crime is an issue, in a written statement.
"A key ongoing problem is people bringing dangerous knives and weapons to our shopping centres, and in certain cases with the possible intent to use those weapons," he told 7.30.
In May, at Melbourne's Northland Shopping Centre, a brawl allegedly between rival gangs involving machetes prompted the Victorian government to bring forward a machete ban to September.
Under an amnesty, bins will be placed at police stations to collect weapons.
Mr Anand believes these measures should have been implemented sooner.
"This [ban] would roll out in September," he said. "But do we still have enough measures to control all the weapons that are being sold?"
Asked for his response to Mr Anand’s concerns, Victorian Police Minister Anthony Carbines released a statement to 7.30.
"What happened to Mr Anand was horrifying and our thoughts are with him during this very difficult time," he said.
Offences on the rise
Figures released to 7.30 from Victoria Police show offences at Melbourne's 13 largest shopping complexes have risen eight per cent year-on-year and have now returned to above pre-pandemic levels.
The centres captured in the Victorian data include major complexes such as Chadstone Shopping Centre, Southpoint in Cheltenham and Preston's Northland.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Victorian government passed laws allowing Protective Services Officers (PSO) to be redeployed from train stations to shopping centres, sporting precincts and populated areas.
Unlike security guards, PSOs are armed and have powers of arrest.
However, in a statement to 7.30, Victoria Police confirmed the laws had not been used to deploy PSOs to shopping centres and there aren't any active plans to do so.
"Victoria Police has used these laws to deploy PSOs to the Land Forces Expo and Australian Grand Prix," a Victoria Police spokesperson said.
7.30 understands a key reason they haven't been used is that it would leave railway stations exposed, given the government's commitment to staff 220 metropolitan train stations and four regional hubs.
Shadow Victorian Police Minister David Southwick is calling for the government to hire more PSOs to deploy them directly to shopping centres.
"Five years ago, Labor changed laws to allow PSOs into shopping centres but they've done nothing to make it happen," he said.
"If they were serious about tackling retail crime, they'd stop stalling and start putting boots on the ground and hire more PSOs to make it happen."
But security experts aren't convinced PSOs are the solution.
Security consultant Luke Percy-Dove has worked with shopping centres for 30 years. He says while high-profile incidents at shopping centres are concerning, they aren't common enough to warrant PSOs.
"If these sorts of rare instances, like [what] happened at Bondi, if these became more regular, then we would have to look more seriously at what the next level of security [is] applied to public spaces," he said.
Approaches in other states
In Queensland, laws are now in place allowing police to use handheld metal detectors to search and seize weapons from people in public places.
Police allege one man had two knives at a Townsville shopping centre last week.
Across Queensland in the past fortnight just under 11,500 people have been scanned and 77 weapons seized.
Victoria Police Minister Anthony Carbines told 730 the government had strengthened laws to give police similar capability.
"We have also given Victoria Police expanded stop and search powers so they can continue to seize a record number of weapons off our streets," he said.
Currently, security guards have limited powers; generally they can only report, detain and deter.
The CEO of the peak body for security companies in Australia, Bryan de Caires, says classifying security guards as frontline workers would give them the power by law to detain individuals.
"If someone is obstructing or hindering them doing their duty, they have grounds either to detain that person or to get them to leave, otherwise, there are consequences," he said.
Mr de Caires is also aware of the police's ability to respond.
"We're certainly not advocating the additional powers like police because police are the police, security is not the police," he told 7.30.
Mr Percy-Dove said some security companies were reluctant to train their guards to intervene due to potential legal issues.
"If they overstep, use too much force in proportionate to whatever was occurring and somebody gets injured, that brings risk to the shopping centre operator [and] creates risk for the provider of the security officers," he said.
Increase in bodycams
Security guards at Westfield shopping centres now have body-worn cameras; its owner, the Scentre Group, reported it had increased security presence and measures in its 2024 annual report.
"After the Bondi attack, we introduced additional personal protective equipment, including vests, for all security officers in every centre," the report stated.
Scentre Group declined 7.30's request to observe operations in its centres, but instead supplied the ABC previously unreleased footage showing its security guards wearing the devices on their protective vests.
The ABC first revealed in March that the cameras had been deployed.
Mr de Caires says the body-worn cameras are likely to become commonplace in shopping centres.
"We are seeing a greater use of that technology partly as a protection and partly as a deterrent because if people know they're being recorded, they behave in slightly different ways," he said.
7.30 also requested interviews regarding security measures with Scentre Group — which partly owns Westfield — and Vicinity Centres, which owns Northland and Chadstone Shopping Centres in Melbourne.
Both declined to take part.
Plea for help
As for Mr Anand, the 33-year-old says he's now too frightened to go back to his local shopping centre.
"I barely can muster any courage of going out of my own home to the same place where I usually went for a quick walk and come back home," he said.
But he faces another challenge. His temporary visa is due to expire next month and he needs to continue his medical treatment.
"I cannot go back [to India] with such an impalement or such an injury on my arm," he said.
"All my surgeries are done here, all my surgeons, my follow-up appointments are organised here.
"I need that medical support. Who's going to be taking care of me?"
His mother says she is concerned about how her son will receive medical treatment and wants the Australian government to help.
"I want to say that the community and government to help him," Ms Anand told 7.30.
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