London - An engineer told on Sunday night how he desperately fought with the East London Tube terrorist while others stood by and filmed it on their mobile phones.
David Pethers, 33, said he and another commuter used their bodies to block the knifeman in a corner of the station to protect toddlers and children behind.
He turned up at the scene at Leytonstone Station shortly after the fanatic had singled out a middle-aged man carrying a guitar and had beaten him unconscious.
Witnesses said the attacker had then pulled out his knife and slashed it “forward and backwards” over the victim’s neck.
Mr Pethers was also slashed in the neck as he tried to tackle the knifeman but continued to trade blows with him until police arrived and used Tasers to bring him down.
In a dramatic account of his ordeal, Mr Pethers told how he shouted to get the attacker’s attention so he did not turn and hurt anyone else but he insisted he was not a hero.
Mr Pethers, however, said he was upset by the fact that several people stood by and recorded the incident on their phones, rather than help.
“The worst part about it was me and the bloke with the rucksack, we were basically baying for his attention so he would not go for anyone else and there were other adult men standing there, just filming it on their phones.
“There were so many opportunities where someone could have grabbed him. One guy came up to me afterwards and said “well done, I want to shake your hand, you are the only one who did anything, I got the whole thing on film”.
“I was so angry, I nearly turned on him but I walked away. I thought ‘Are you crazy? You are standing there filming and did nothing’. I was really angry afterwards. I had to go for a walk for about two hours to calm down.”
Mr Pethers, a lift engineer, was on his way to his work Christmas party when he walked down the stairs into the station and came across the terrifying scene on Saturday night.
The attacker had already seriously wounded one man who was lying in a pool of blood and was pacing up and down the inside the station looking for more victims.
“I walked down into the station and I saw someone on the floor and blood and a guy who I thought was Somalian shouting and waving a knife,” he said.
“So I turned round and started shouting at people to get back out of the station. People who were coming into the station, I was telling them to turn around. I noticed the Somalian guy was going after a guy with a rucksack so I started shouting at the bloke with a knife, to get his attention.
“Then he turned and came towards me. The guy with the rucksack came over and we tried to contain him in the ticket area. We exchanged a few blows, me and the Somalian fella.
“He cut my neck. I was throwing punches at him and he was swiping the knife at me and the man with the rucksack was doing the same thing, just trying to stop him.”
He added: “It was 7pm, there were children, I’m pretty sure there were babies in buggies. I just thought ‘I am going to stop this idiot’.”
Mr Pethers said that after a short time, police arrived and someone in the crowd dragged him away. It was at this point he realised he had suffered a four inch knife wound on his neck, under his jaw. Incredibly, he said he then tried to break free to hit the man because he was angry he had stabbed him.
“Then the police arrived and I think four Taser shots were fired and I think the fourth one hit him, or worked and he went down and the police took over and I kind of sloped off. I’m not exactly sure what happened when the police arrived because someone dragged me back.
“I saw one, the first policeman, fire his Taser and I don’t know if that missed or it didn’t work but then another police officer came out and shot another Taser and it went like that and I think the third or fourth Taser worked.”
Mr Pethers, who has lived in Leytonstone all his life, said he believed the attacker was on drugs.
“There was a moment where we locked eyes, and he did seem like he was on something. He was shouting stuff about Syria but that was just one or two remarks…he just looked like a crack addict to me, like he was on something and had just lost it. He was going for people’s necks.
“I don’t think I was scared, it all happened so fast. My first thought was just to get everyone back.”
But he insisted he was not a hero.
“I don’t really see it like that. I am glad I did it but at the same time I am not glad I put my family through it. They were really worried.
“All I would say to people is, don’t put yourselves in danger but at the same time, if someone is trying to do something, don’t stand there filming - help them.”
Daily Mail