A hero security guard who rushed to save an n girl being stabbed in London’s Leicester Square has shared new details from the terrifying ordeal.
Abdullah, 29, helped to disarm the 11-year-old’s accused attacker after the man allegedly placed her in a headlock and stabbed her eight times at 11.30am on Monday.
He held Ioan Pintaru, 32, who goes by his middle name Alexandru, on the ground for several minutes before Metropolitan Police arrived and arrested him.
The 11-year-old girl from NSW required plastic surgery after she sustained serious wounds to her face, shoulder, wrist and neck during the alleged attack.
The girl’s mother, 34, was also injured and was found covered in her daughter’s blood after she desperately tried to save her.
Abdullah said he started running towards the alleged knifeman after he heard a scream while working in a store nearby.
‘A couple of more people joined as well, and we just hold him until the police came.
‘It took maybe three or four minutes for police to arrive, and they just took him into custody.’
Abdullah said he wasn’t scared when he rushed at the alleged knifeman.
‘I would say that I’m a brave person. We Pakistanis are brave by heart as. So I wasn’t scared,’ he told the ABC.
‘I’ve never seen anything like it before, it was horrible,’ he said.
Pintaru, a long-distance truck driver, has been charged with attempted murder and possession of a bladed article in a public place following the allegedly random attack.
He appeared at London’s Westminster Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday wearing a grey tracksuit and spoke only to confirm his name and date of birth.
Pintaru, who was described as homeless in court, was remanded in custody ahead of his next court hearing in the Old Bailey on September 10.
Police have not confirmed a motive for the alleged attack but say it was not terror-related. They believe Pintaru did not know his alleged victims.
The girl had been on holiday with her family when she was attacked.
She had been visiting the TWG Tea store with her mother at Leicester Square, a tourist hotspot which receives up to 2.5million visitors every week.