Saved by bread & baton

Baker, cop are heroes

A rookie London transit cop was stabbed in the face while bravely fighting off the London Bridge terrorists with only his baton — and a baker beat back one of the fiends with a bread basket, authorities and the chef said Sunday.

The two tales of heroism were among several to emerge Sunday in the wake of the deadly onslaught.

British Transport Police Chief Constable Paul Crowther said he spoke with the transit officer, whom he did not identify, from his hospital bed.

“Although he is seriously unwell, he was able to recount how he faced the attackers armed only with his baton, outside London Bridge station,” Crowther recalled.

“For an officer who only joined us less than two years ago, the bravery he showed was outstanding and makes me extremely proud.”

Most of the country’s transit officers do not carry firearms.

Another police hero was an off-duty British cop and rugby player who was stabbed when he tackled one of the knife-wielding terrorists, authorities said. The wounded officer remained in critical condition.

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Cressida Dick praised the “extraordinarily brave actions by officers on and off duty” who “ran towards the danger.’’

Meanwhile, Romanian chef Florin Morariu, who works in the Bread Ahead bakery in London’s Borough Market, told The Associated Press that he ushered about 20 panicked people into the bakery to shield them from the terrorists, who were marauding through restaurants and bars in the area.

“Oh, my God, it is a terrorist attack here,” Morariu recalled thinking as he saw the crowds running.

He said he ran outside and “hit one of [the terrorists] in the head with a basket, and I knocked him out.’’

He allowed the nearly two dozen fleeing people in the street to come into the bakery, where he shut the door and pulled down the shades.

He asked for someone to go get him a bat at one point, presumably to defend his group if necessary.