When your city needs a hero, sometimes you have to send in the clown.

An entertainer called Doo Doo the Clown has been honoured in his home city of Toronto for bravely intervening when two women were attacked by a man at the weekend.

Doo Doo, whose real name is Shane Farberman, was driving home in full costume from a job when he saw a man threatening two women.

He intervened when the man assaulted the women and chased after them. As the women were running away, Mr Farberman shouted at them to get into his car for refuge.

Even though the man banged on the car, smashing its window and ripping off a side mirror, Farberman and the women held out until the police arrived; Farberman had dialled 911 when he first spotted the man acting suspiciously.

He captured the event on his car’s dash cam. It took eight police officers to restrain the man.

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Farberman, who has been a clown for more than 30 years, was honoured by the city for his bravery with a plaque.

“It was terrifying,” he told CBC Radio.

“He turned around the corner and next thing you know he walks by these two women and he gives one of them a punch or a push.

“I screamed as loud as I could, over and over: ‘Get in my car! Get in my car!’ I forgot that I’m in a clown suit and my car’s filled with clowns.

“I’m happy I didn’t get out of the car. I’m happy the ladies heard me screaming like crazy.

“I’m a clown, I mean the worst I could do is hit him with a balloon animal.”

(Pictures: Doo Doo The International Clown/Facebook)