What were all the other men in the area doing, scrolling on their smart phones?

Heroic tourist: Man who fought off Turku knife attacker may never walk again

In just a few moments of bloody violence on an August Friday afternoon in Turku, Hassan Zubier’s life changed forever. The Swedish national has been hailed as a hero for helping one victim and protecting others from injury in a deadly knife attack that rocked the city — and the country. Zubier did not escape the harrowing incident without injury – he may never walk on his own again.

Hassan Zubier was on a camper van holiday in south-west Finland, and on Friday, August 18 he strolled along the picturesque Turku riverside with his partner, their infant child and his partner’s mother. They went to a cafe and ate lunch at a little restaurant on a side street by the river.

As the group was trying to reach the older part of town they walked past the city’s central market square, where Zubier saw a young woman collapse.

She was bleeding profusely from a gaping knife wound in her neck.

Zubier told Yle’s Swedish-language TV channel Yle Fem that he saw another person running away from the woman – and he was screaming.

Partner in attacker’s line of sight

Zubier – a trained health care worker – rushed to the injured woman and tried to stop the bleeding. The attacker then stabbed Zubier in his neck, but his injury did not prevent him from seeing the attacker head toward his partner.

He says he yelled and screamed to distract the attacker from targeting his partner and was then stabbed again by the knife-wielding assailant.

“If I hadn’t done anything, she would be dead today,” he says. “I couldn’t save the other woman, she died in my arms.”

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