A gang of four Muslim men attacked a Christian street preacher in Norway, kicking him in the face and threatening to kill him if he did not convert to Islam.

The four men approached Roar Fløttum last week when he was preaching and praying for the sick on a street in Trondheim and asked him to come with them to pray over a friend who was injured. When they got him alone, they pushed him down a cellar staircase, beat him, robbed him, and threatened to kill him if he did not convert to Islam, as reported by the Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians in Europe, a Vienna-based watchdog group.

“I asked if they wanted to be prayed for and one agreed, saying he had back pain,” Fløttum told the Norwegian daily Norge Idag.

The men “wanted to take me to a friend who they said had injured his foot and was now waiting to be picked up to be taken to the emergency room. I trusted them and joined them. They took me to a backyard. They were very nice and I couldn’t believe they would deceive me,” Fløttum said.

The preacher said that as soon as they entered the backyard, the men pushed him down a cellar staircase and began hitting and kicking him in the face.

“They demanded my bank card, codes, mobile and Apple ID,” Fløttum said. “They held me hostage there for an hour as they made withdrawals from the card. They made about ten thousand kroner.”

“While they kept me there, they threatened me and said they would kill me if I did not convert to Islam,” he said. “They wanted me to say a few words in Arabic. I was scared and actually thought they were going to kill me because they said they had a knife and didn’t want witnesses.”

Fløttum said that as soon as his assailants left him, he went straight to the police, even though the men had warned him not to under penalty of death.

“They are now investigating the case,” Fløttum said. “I hope they are caught and given help, because you cannot act against fellow human beings that way.”

According to police chief May Britt Enmo, no one has yet been arrested for the crime but police are currently reviewing footage from video surveillance cameras along the route traveled by the attackers in the hope of identifying them.

On his Facebook page, Fløttum asked for prayers for his attackers.

“Yesterday I was robbed and subjected to violence in the center of Trondheim,” he wrote. “Please pray for the perpetrators to be taken in and get the help they need. I have almost no physical injuries.”

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