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A woman has been charged after she was arrested on a busy road in Geelong after a stolen car rammed into a school bus.
A black Kia Optima reversed into a bus, carrying students from Sacred Heart College and St Joseph's College, on Latrobe Terrace near Matthew Flinders Secondary College in an alleged attempt to flee police shortly before 4pm on Thursday.
Witnesses reported children screaming and at least two gunshots, before the car was involved in a crash at an intersection just minutes later.
Police said nobody on the bus was injured during the incident.
It is alleged the Kia then drove at police, with one officer using their firearm, before the car collided with another vehicle.
A woman driving the civilian vehicle was taken to hospital with minor injuries. The two occupants of the Kia attempted to flee the scene on foot.
The pair were arrested near the crash, including a 43-year-old woman who suffered minor injuries during the incident and was taken to hospital under police guard.
She has since been charged with handling stolen goods after being interviewed by detectives.
A black Kia Optima reversed into a school bus in Geelong on Thursday afternoon
A 43-year-old woman has been charged with handling stolen goods
The woman was bailed to appear at Geelong Magistrates' Court on March 31.
A 37-year-old man was transported to hospital with a non-life-threatening gunshot wound to the arm and remains there under police guard.
Following the ordeal, a parent whose child attends school in Geelong said he could not believe what had happened.
'It's not the thing you want to hear on the first day of school,' Simon Trickeys told the Geelong Advertiser.
'I didn't think people got shot in Geelong, but I guess this is what the world is like at the moment.'
A concerned mother, who chose to remain anonymous, told the Advertiser she 'got goosebumps' when she heard gunshots.
'I was thinking: "Is this actually happening, am I making this up?"' she said.
The CEO of Mercy Education, Andy Kuppe, has assured the public that children on the bus will be monitored following the incident.
The Kia also allegedly collided with another car before its two occupants fled the scene on foot
'For hopefully only a very few or none, it might have triggered a memory of some other sort of trauma in their life,' he told ABC Radio Melbourne on Friday.
'[The school will] be monitoring the girls to see if there's any change in their behaviour or mood and responding accordingly.'
'As you'd expect, there's a level of excitement and chat about all that's happened on their first day back at school from the break.'
The investigation into the stolen car and subsequent crash is being handled with Professional Standards Command.
This is standard practice when a police firearm is discharged.
Anyone with information on what may have happened has been urged to contact Crime Stoppers.
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