Police said the man, 30, allegedly committed multiple assaults at the Westfield Fountain Gate shopping center.

Three people were taken to hospital after he allegedly stabbed them at the bus stop in front of the complex.

“A man is alleged to have slashed three people with a box cutter near a shopping center bus stop on Overland Drive at around 2.25pm,” Victoria Police said in a statement.

“The man allegedly fled the scene before police arrested the 30-year-old Narre Warren man inside the center shortly afterwards.

“A woman and two men were taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.”

Knife incidents in Melbourne shopping centers have become a disturbing trend, with machetes often the weapon of choice.

Most notably, a 15-year-old boy was arrested in September after a 16-year-old boy was stabbed to death at Woodgrove shopping center in Melbourne’s west.

Police said the 16-year-old boy was stabbed “several times” during an altercation with the other teen.

Last month, a man was arrested after he allegedly stabbed two people with a broken bottle inside a Waverley Gardens shopping center in Melbourne’s southeast.

It is understood the man allegedly stabbed two men inside the center before shoppers carried out a citizen’s arrest, detaining the alleged attacker until police arrived.

A week earlier, in a separate incident at Westfield Doncaster, about 20 kilometers northeast of Melbourne’s CBD, three children were rushed to hospital after a stabbing.

One with a suspected stab wound to his upper body, another had a cut on his back and a third boy suffered a laceration to his arm, police said.