A BLOODIED and battered, Wayne Greenhalgh staggered towards them, screaming at the top of his lungs.

“Help. Help me.’’

Behind him, in hot pursuit, was his frenzied attacker, allegedly a neighbour — someone who was familiar but rather than being known for his pleasantries was renowned as an oddity. A man who allegedly had just plunged a large hunting knife repeatedly into Wayne’s body, neck and hands.

Police will claim that Ihsas Khan, 22, wanted to kill someone and Wayne was his perfect target.

Resident Sivei Ah Chong and his son Derek knew what to do. They would act without thought to their own lives. Instinct would override safety and heroes would be created.

“My dad has yelled at me to grab something from the garage and the closest thing I could find was the broomstick, so I have grabbed that and then my dad has chased the attacker and cut him off from Wayne,” Derek, 20, said. “My dad kept saying to him, ‘Drop the knife or I will hit you’ and he just said, ‘Do it, I want you to do it’.”

Mr Ah Chong, 43, then smashed the man in the back of the head with the large piece of wood, enough to daze the aggressor but not enough to stop him.

“He would not put the knife down,” Mr Ah Chong said.

Before terror reigned, Saturday was travelling how Saturday always did in Ohlfsen Rd.

Wayne had his dog’s leash in hand as he strolled through the neighbourhood. He was like clockwork when it came to walking his dog. Once a day during the week, twice a day on the weekends, always at the same time.

Neighbours now know his routine made him an easy target.

Just before 4pm as Wayne approached a small reserve just two minutes away from his house, he spotted his alleged attacker, dressed in his usual white robe. He didn’t see the large hunting knife until it was too late.

Somehow, during the frenzied attack, Wayne managed to claw himself away and stumble to the Ah Chong’s house, their intervention with the wood giving him a moment’s reprieve.

Maribel Brooks was getting her hair done next door at 31 Ohlfsen Rd when she heard the “commotion” outside the salon.

Out of nowhere, the bloodied and panic-stricken face of Wayne appeared in the doorway. She remembers the striking image of dripping blood and the stomach-churning fact his fingers were missing and the bones protruding.

“It was a non-event sort of day. I was in the salon with another lady who was getting her hair dyed and talking to the hairdresser.

“Then we heard the commotion outside and Wayne came rushing through the sliding door and screamed at us to lock the door,” she said.

“He was covered in blood … there was blood everywhere and we were trying to get him to sit down and relax but he kept saying he was all right.”

Moments after they shut and locked the sliding glass door, the ­attacker appeared outside holding his knife. Only glass separated them.

The attacker rammed the door, headbutting the glass and screaming in Arabic, “I’m here to die.”

“He was stabbing at the glass door and praying in Arabic, saying, ‘Allah Akbar, this is all for Allah,’ and he was constantly saying the blood that had been spilt inside the shop was a beautiful sight,” Derek Ah Chong said.

One neighbour bravely punched the man to get him to stop. But he continued to pace the streets, turning his attention to the cavalry coming over the hill. The police.

The first police car pulled up about 50 metres from the salon. Khan ran. Not away from the officers, but towards them, allegedly stabbing repeatedly at the driver’s door.

They managed to reverse into a nearby street, but Khan followed.

Raymond Brooks was working in his home office when he looked outside his window and saw police yelling at a man to drop his weapon.

“It was happening right there in front of me, this bloke with a bit of beard, he was just standing there with this large commando knife and the male constable had him covered with the Taser and the female constable had her gun drawn,” he said.

“He was talking about how we are killing his Muslim brothers and sisters and eventually the male constable was forced to fire the Taser but it didn’t look like it got him fully at first because the male constable had to jump on him.

“He started struggling, straight away started struggling, and they had to get several officers involved to subdue him while the female police officer covered the knife.”

Back at the salon, Wayne was losing blood fast after a major artery had been nicked by the attacker’s weapon.

But he was finally sitting still, the shock and adrenaline from his escape wearing off.

The fight for his life was only just beginning.