Five killed when car ploughs through beer garden at Royal Hotel in Daylesford, Victoria, Australia

Damage to the car at the Daylesford Hotel beer garden was visible at the scene of the tragedy at the pub in Victoria. William 'Bill' Swale has been charged with the deaths of five people. Photo / 7 News

A small Victorian town is reeling after five people, including a young child, were killed when a car smashed into a beer garden at a local pub yesterday.

A police spokesperson said staff who attended the incident at the Royal Hotel in Daylesford, in which several people were also seriously injured, would be offered counselling.

Superintendent John Fitzpatrick said four people died at the scene and the fifth victim, a teenage girl, died later in hospital, NCA Newswire reported.

One of those killed was a 6-year-old boy.

Two men and a woman died at the scene of the crash, which occurred shortly after 6pm.

“I haven’t seen anything this drastic for a long time,” Fitzpatrick said.

“Any time you have five people die at a particular scene, it’s horrible.

“There are families that have got loved ones that are no longer going to be around.

“We don’t like to see anyone lose their life but to see a child – you don’t ever want to see anything like that.”

Fitzpatrick said a white BMW had mounted a kerb and driven into the beer garden - and photos from the scene showed a white BMW X5 with significant damage being assessed by police.

He revealed that the driver, a 66-year-old man, is receiving treatment at a local hospital and police were still waiting to speak with him.

A witness from a nearby business told NCA Newswire: “It’s pretty bad, I’ve never seen anything so traumatic in my life.”

Another said: “There were bodies everywhere, it was horrifying.

“I watched the whole crash. The car went up into the sky. I thought it was just dust. It’s only now I know it was bodies.

“There were people screaming and shouting. It was chaos.”

Four of the survivors, including a 3-year-old boy, were flown to hospitals in Melbourne for treatment and others were transported by road.

Kitty Martin from the nearby Pizzeria La Luna restaurant told the Herald-Sun that there was a collision in the roundabout before the BWW plunged into the beer garden, which was packed with drinkers and diners enjoying fine weather and the unofficial long weekend before the public holiday on Tuesday for the Melbourne Cup.

“The car looked pretty bad. It looks like it has hit something pretty hard,” she said.

“Apparently it went through a pole.”

Hepburn Shire mayor Brian Hood told the Herald-Sun it was an “absolute tragedy” for Daylesford.

“We’re a small town, this will rock us hard,” Hood said.

“It’s an absolute tragedy.”