‘Heroes’stop deadly knife rampage in Australia

A KNIFE-WIELDING man killed one person and attempted to stab several others in a central Sydney rampage on Tuesday before being chased and pinned down by members of the public, witnesses recounted.

Police said a 21-year-old Sydney man with a history of mental illness is believed to have killed a woman of around the same age in a residential unit before going on the rampage.

New Sout h Wa les pol ice commissioner said he had no k nown links to terror organisat ions, but he d id have a t humb drive wit h deta i ls of ma s s - c a s u a l t y w h i t e - s upremacist attacks in t he US and New Zealand.

Witness Megan Hales said she saw a man brandishing a large kitchen knife chasing several people through the busy central business district shortly after lunchtime.

A 41-year-old woman who was stabbed is now said to be in a stable condition.

“Five or six others were chasing him behind, trying to stop him, they caught him and restrained him,”, Hales said.

Four of the pursuers were Colombian-born Alex Roberts, and Britons Lee Cuthbert and br ot her s Paul and Luke O’Shaughnessy – all colleagues at a recruitment consultancy who raced from their fourthfloor office to the street.

“We’ve opened the window and seen the guy wielding a k n i fe a nd j u mpi ng on t he bonnet” of a nearby car, said Paul O’Shaughnessy, a former professiona l footba ller.

Convinced it was a terrorist attack, his brother Luke – a champion Muay Thai boxer – led the chase.

“We all just ran down the building and chased him down the street. Everyone was kind of panicking, no one really knew what was happening,” Roberts said.

Cuthbert said Luke, with the help of another man, “managed to get him down onto the floor and pin him down” with chairs and a plastic crate before police arrived.

“We’re all brothers really, so when you see brothers running, your natural instinct is to go and follow.”

Police said despite indicat ions t he assa i la nt shouted “A l la hu A kba r” a nd “shoot me” it wa s not yet c le a r whether t here was a politica l motive.

“It would appear at this stage it is unprovoked but we are keeping a very open mind as we move forward,” police spokesman superintendent Gavin Wood said, hailing the action of the bystanders.

“To approach a person … with clear evidence of a stabbing previously, these people are heroes.”