Canberra, Dec 21 (IANS): A car struck at least a dozen pedestrians outside Melbourne's iconic Flinders Street station on Thursday and officials quickly shut down the centre of Australia's second largest city.

The driver of the car and a second man were arrested and were in police custody after the vehicle collided with "a number of pedestrians" between Elizabeth and Swanston streets, the Victoria Police said in a statement.

The ambulance service said 13 people were taken to a hospital with injuries while two more were assessed by paramedics at the scene.

The police asked people to avoid the area. Images from the scene showed a number of people lying on the ground close to a large white vehicle.

One witness told radio station 3AW the car had "just mowed everybody down, people were flying everywhere".

Another witness, Lachlan Read, told the Herald Sun that the whole incident lasted about 15 seconds.

"He has gone straight through the red light at pace and it was bang, bang, bang. It was just one after the other," he said of the moment the vehicle started hitting people.

In January, six people died when a man drove a car into pedestrians on Bourke Street.

Afterwards, city authorities installed concrete blocks in various locations -- including on Flinders Street -- hoping to prevent vehicle-based attacks.