Imam stabbed at mosque had helped arena bomb victims

A MUSLIM surgeon stabbed in the neck as he walked to his mosque helped treat victims of the Manchester Arena suicide bombing, it emerged yesterday.

Nasser Kurdy, 58, avoided serious injuries when he was attacked in a suspected hate crime as he arrived for afternoon prayers at the mosque where he is a lay imam.

The consultant orthopaedic surgeon, pictured yesterday, said he had narrowly avoided catastrophic damage to nerves controlling his hands. Mr Kurdy treated victims of the Manchester Arena bombing immediately after the atrocity which killed 22 people in May.

He was walking into the Islamic Cultural Centre in Hale, Greater Manchester, on Sunday when a man shouting abuse stabbed him in the back of the neck. The father of three was taken to Wythenshawe Hospital – where he works – and treated for a 1in (2.5cm) wound to the back of his neck by colleagues including his trainee, before being allowed home.

Yesterday, Mr Kurdy said: ‘I was just going to the centre on Sunday evening on my own for mid-afternoon prayers. I was a couple of minutes late. As I entered the grounds of the premises, I felt that pain and the blow to my neck.

‘I turned around and saw this gentleman in a threatening pose.

‘You have major nerves in your neck that work your arm. You have [blood] vessels going up to your head. None of those have been affected.’

Unaware the knifeman had fled, the surgeon – who sometimes preaches at the mosque – then picked up a chair to defend fellow worshippers. He added: ‘My main concern was that he wasn’t going to come in [to the mosque].’ Two men aged 54 and 32 who were arrested within an hour of the attack were still being quizzed by detectives last night.