Five members of two Indian-origin families in Australia, including two children, were killed when a luxury SUV ploughed into a packed outdoor dining area of a pub in Melbourne, leaving the Indian community devastated.

Vivek Bhatia (38), his son Vihan (11), Pratibha Sharma (44), her daughter, Anvi (nine), and partner Jatin Chugh (30) died after the BMW mounted a kerb and hit patrons on the front lawn of the Royal Daylesford hotel on Sunday evening, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

Ms Sharma and her family were enjoying a holiday with family friends, Mr Bhatia and his son Vihaan, who died instantly in the crash, while Mr Bhatia’s 36-year-old wife, Ruchi, and six-year-old son Abeer were taken to hospital with serious injuries, the report said.

Abeer was initially in critical condition with broken legs and internal injuries but has since been stabilised.

There are many others, including a baby, who were injured in the accident and have been shifted to a hospital for treatment.

The driver of the white BMW Sports Utility Vehicle has been interviewed by police in hospital following the crash.

The unnamed man, a 66-year-old from Mount Macedon, was spoken to by police on Tuesday but was not arrested or charged.

“At this time the driver has not been charged, with inquiries to continue after his eventual release from care,” a police statement provided to the Herald Sun said.

Meanwhile, the distraught family of one of the crash victims, Sharma, has revealed their final conversation with the beloved mum.

Her father Vikas said she had spoken to her mother Urmila just two hours before her death.

“She said they were staying in a beautiful house all together,” he told the Herald Sun.

Urmila said: “She said: tomorrow I will come (home) early”.

She said they tried to call Pratibha later that night but there was “no reply”.

“We thought it was okay and there was no need to disturb them because they were enjoying themselves,” he said, expressing his disbelief at his hardworking daughter’s untimely death.

“Why? Why? I don’t understand,” he said. “Her whole life she struggled, worked hard. Her beautiful daughter is also dead.” The Sharma family were from Point Cook, near Tarneit.

A close family friend of Sharma’s said she had just found love after spending years as a single mother.

Sharma, who once ran for Victorian parliament for the seat of Werribee as an independent candidate, worked as a registered migration agent before recently becoming a lawyer.

The horror crash has left the small Victorian town north of Melbourne in a state of shock and grief. The Indian community is in mourning following their deaths, with multiple people taking to social media to express their grief.

“Very shocking news, one of our friends and our Australian Sikh Support dedicated volunteer Pratibha Sharma from Melbourne, her husband Jatin, their daughter Anvi and their two friends, died in an unfortunate accident,” one user wrote.

“Pratibha always along with her family members have worked tirelessly for volunteer initiatives for the community.” Another user said it was a “big loss for our community”.

“Very shocking and saddened to hear about Pratibha Sharma, her husband Jatin Chugh, their daughter Anvi, another Indian community member, Vivek Bhatia and his son’s demise in Daylesford’s tragic car crash,” another wrote.

The driver’s lawyer Martin Amad said he was an insulin-dependent diabetic who required immediate treatment from paramedics at the scene.

He noted his client was a family man with no criminal history and he returned a negative blood alcohol reading after the crash.

“He is deeply distressed and feels great empathy with the families and friends of the victims and the Daylesford community,” Mr Amad said on Wednesday.

The Delhi High Court today refused to entertain a plea seeking permission to organise Chhath Puja at the banks of Yamuna river here.

Chhath Puja is celebrated on the sixth day after Diwali, primarily in Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh. During the festival, people fast, bathe in rivers and offer prayers to thank the Sun God.

Justice Subramonium Prasad refused to entertain the plea moved by Chhat Puja Sangharsh Samiti and others through advocate VS Dubey.

Justice Prasad said he would dismiss the plea. Thereafter, the counsel for the petitioners withdrew the plea.

The petitioners sought a direction to set aside an order issued by the Delhi government on October 29, 2021, that “no site shall be designated on the bank of the Yamuna”.

It was argued that the said order was notified by the Delhi government during the COVID-19 period without any power; apparently, in the said notification, there was no mention of the rights, contentions, or grievances of the government.

It was further submitted that the Delhi government has not mentioned the proper law under which it was entitled to restrain the worship of 30-40 lakh devotees totally dedicated to Chhath Pooja.

It was also submitted that the said notification restrained the fundamental rights and worship of the people of Delhi and the neighbouring state of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.

A US-based Indian-origin middle school girl has just won $25,000 (Rs 21 lakh) for inventing a fire-detection device that works faster than the average smoke detector.

12-year-old Shanya Gill from San Jose, California, won the Thermo Fisher Scientific ASCEND (Aspiring Scientists Cultivating Exciting New Discoveries) Award, the top prize in the Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge competition in which 65,000 middle schoolers participated.

According to the Society for Science, in the summer of 2022, a fire destroyed a restaurant behind Shanya’s house.

“Since then, my mother has become increasingly cautious, always asking me to double-check that the kitchen stove is turned off before leaving our house,” Shanya said.

One day, Shanya discovered that thermal cameras can detect heat loss in homes during the winter months. She wondered if these cameras could also spot house fires more quickly than traditional smoke detectors.

That incident inspired her to create a fire-detection system that involved connecting an affordable thermal camera to a compact computer. She then programmed the system to differentiate between people-which were identified as warm objects moving horizontally-and heat sources, such as an active gas burner, which were identified as hot objects that remained stationary.

“With an early warning system, we could save thousands of lives every year,” Shanya said.

Shanya then programmed the system to send a text message when it detected a heat source but no human presence for a continuous 10-minute period. Shanya’s system accurately detected human presence 98% of the time and heat sources 97% of the time.