At least 16 injured after a car crashes into rush hour crowds outside Melbourne's Flinders Street Station

More than a dozen pedestrians, including a toddler, have been injured after a car ploughed into rush hour crowds. 

Chaotic scenes unfolded as the white SUV crashed into the group of panicked commuters and shoppers at the corner of Melbourne's Elizabeth Street and Flinders Street at 4.41pm on Thursday. 

At least 13 people, one in a serious condition, were taken to hospital including a pre-school aged child with serious head injuries, according to the Daily Mail.

It is unknown if this is a terror related incident although two men in the vehicle have been arrested and are in police custody.

Footage shows one of the men in a white shirt with a beard being pulled to the gutter away from the vehicle.

The second man in a red checked shirt, also with a beard, was arrested a short time later. 

An eye-witness described seeing people the car hurtling towards the crowd. 

She told radio station 3AW: 'It just mowed everybody down, people were flying everywhere. 

“We heard thump, thump. People are running everywhere.”  

Vince Harris, the manager of the Freechoice tobacconist at Flinders Street Station, was nearby in the immediate aftermath of the crash.

He was on the scene from about two minutes after the car collided and could see the cracked windscreen and Good Samaritans trying to save injured pedestrians.

“A few ladies were screaming but it was calm - there were no sirens, nothing,” Mr Harris said.

“I was here when the other one (the Bourke Street tragedy) happened …. you get desensitised.”

One witness's husband told Daily Mail Australia his wife had been taken to Melbourne West with other onlookers to be interviewed.

Police have locked down vast areas of the city taking in Flinders Street, Flinders Lane and Elizabeth Street. 

Footage shows a number of injured pedestrians being treated by passerbys as they wait for paramedics. 

A child at pre-school suffered head injuries and was taken to the Royal Children's Hospital in a serious condition.

Three people were taken to The Alfred Hospital and three people were taken to the Royal Melbourne Hospital but the extent of the injuries are unknown. 

Eye-witnesses told 9 News the saw the white SUV being driven at about 60km/h before it smashed into dozens of pedestrians.  

Another witness told 3AW there were about “five to seven people laying on the ground”.