Four burly Swedish cops put their New York City vacation on hold to answer the call of duty on a Manhattan subway train last night.

The friends were on their way to see Les Misérables on Broadway, DNA Info reports, and rushed in to stop a brutal assault on a crowded rush-hour 6 train.

'We came here for vacation. We’ve been here one day. We’re no heroes, just tourists,' Makrus Åsberg, a 25-year-old officer with the police Uppsala, Sweden, told the New York Post.

'We're no heroes, just tourists': The Swedish cops (pictured left to right) Erik Näslund, 26, Samuel Kvarzell, 25, Makrus Åsberg, 25, and Eric Jansberger, 28, said they were just answering the call of duty

Mr Asberg, along with Erik Naslund, Samuel Kvarzell and Eric Jansberger, subdued an enraged homeless man who was viciously beating another rider on the train.

The Samaritan Scandinavians stopped the violence and held the attacker until the NYPD could arrive, the Post reports.

Video from the incident shows Kvarzell and Asberg holding the suspect down and trying to calm him down as he screams.

'I can't breath! I can't breath!' he screams.

'Take it easy, just calm down,' Asberg tells him.

The friends sprang into action after a frantic conductor yelled over the intercom: 'Are there any police officers on the train?'

As the train pulled into the Bleeker Street station, the Nordic lawmen found a homeless man pummeling another rider in the next car.

Three of the Swedes tended to the aggressor (background) and held him for police, while the fourth stayed with the victim, who had been badly beaten in the fight

The Nordic tourists kept both men calm until NYPD cops showed up to sort out the scene

The victim had a bloody mouth and seemed to be badly beaten and was not defending himself the Swedes told the Post.

One of the officers put the attacker in an arm lock, while two others held him down to the floor of the train.

'One of the guys tried to wrestle us so [we] wrestled him to the floor until the police came,' Kvarzell, 25, who is also an officer, told DNA Info.

'We don't have authority or anything but we thought somebody might need help,' he said.

When NYPD officers showed up, they took custody of the aggressor and the four tourists went on their way to Les Misérables.

Markus Asberg (left) and Samuel Kvarzell (right) stepped in to stop a brutal beating on a New York subway train along with two other friends, all of whom are police officers in their native Sweden