Italian boxers describe ‘truly horrible’ attack
Olympic medallist among those witnessing stabbing incident in London
>> LONDON: Italian Olympic boxer Vincenzo Mangiacapre demonstrated on Thursday how an attacker killed a policeman on the grounds of Parliament in front of the shocked members of his boxing team.
He said the killer, later identified by police as Khalid Masood, had a knife in each hand and used them like drumsticks plunging into policeman Keith Palmer.
“He gave him around 10 stabs in the back, then he left the policeman and came toward us,” the 2012 Olympic light welterweight bronze medallist said.
Mangiacapre and other members of the Italia Thunder boxing team were touring the grounds of Parliament when the lethal attack unfolded. They are in London preparing for a World Series boxing match against a British team, Lionhearts.
Speaking from their hotel, the boxers described the “truly horrible moment” when the attacker ran down people in his SUV before charging onto the Parliament grounds and stabbing an unarmed policeman.
Boxing coach Maurizio Stecca, who won gold in the bantamweight class at the 1984 Olympics, realised immediately that something was not right.
“We heard a loud crash and there was smoke,” he said. “Then we saw this attacker get out of the car with the knives in his hands.”
Stecca and Mangiacapre said a plainclothes policeman, dressed in a suit, pulled out a gun and yelled for the attacker, who was running toward Parliament, to stop.
The man kept running and was shot several times. He died at the scene.
Stecca said the stabbed policeman tried to reach a place of safety but collapsed because of his stab wounds.
“We heard later that he died from loss of blood right there,’ the boxing coach said.
The Italia Thunder boxing team was hurried into Parliament where special forces carried out a security check amid unconfirmed reports there was a suspicious backpack in the building.
Mangiacapre said he was struggling to deal with what he had seen.
“I was petrified looking into the eyes of this person thinking what a human mind could do,” he said.
Meanwhile, Britain’s Kell Brook will defend his IBF welterweight world title against mandatory American challenger Errol Spence Jr at Sheffield United’s Bramall Lane ground on May 27.
“It’s long been a dream of mine to fight outdoors at Bramall Lane and I’m pleased to do that in the biggest fight in the welterweight division,” the 30-year-old told reporters on Wednesday.
Brook has returned to the welterweight division after the previously unbeaten fighter was bludgeoned by Kazakhstan’s Gennady Golovkin in a one-sided WBC and IBF middleweight title bout in London last September.
Texas-based Spence, 27, has won all his 21 fights, 18 by knockout.
“I saw many people talk about how I would avoid Errol Spence,” said Brook, who has won 36 of his 37 fights and will be making his fourth defence of a title won in 2014. “They don’t know me, they don’t know what I’m about.
“I’m going to show the world that I’m the best welterweight on the planet and I’m going to do it right before my people’s eyes.”