Heroic Irishman helped tackle Sydney knifeman
Carpenter helps corner rampaging ‘killer’... and pin him under crate
AN IRISHMAN was injured after he helped take down a terrorist who knifed a woman to death and left another injured in Sydney, Australia.
Shane Donaghey, originally from Buncrana in Co. Donegal, says he does not doubt that other people would have been killed but for the intervention of brave passersby.
The 38-year-old carpenter was one of several people who ran after the attacker during the incident at King Street.
After catching up with him, Mr Donaghy helped pin him to the ground during the attack at Sydney’s Central Business District at around 2pm yesterday afternoon.
The 21-year-old man, who was shouting ‘Allahu Akbar’, was waving a large butcher’s knife about after he killed the first woman.
He stabbed the 41-year-old in the back and then tried to attack other passersby.
Another woman was taken to hospital with stab wounds.
With no thought for his own safety, selfless Mr Donaghy and a group of other people ran after the terrorist.
‘It was crazy stuff. I just heard this commotion and this guy running down the street with a knife. His hands were covered in blood.
‘I just started running and I soon caught up with him,’ he said.
‘We managed to get on top of him and others used pieces of furniture to keep him pinned down until the police arrived.
‘He was crazy. He was trying to bite us and all but we managed to keep him pinned down. But he was as weak as p*** when we got on top of him. He was still shouting “Allahu Akbar”.
‘He was a hard man with the knife but not so hard without it. He started to cry after that,’ said Mr Donaghy.
Mr Donaghy, who suffered some cuts and bruises, paid tribute to those who helped him bring the terrorist under control.
‘He was just wild when he was running down the street. I suppose like me the adrenalin kicked in and others took after him too,’ he added. Mr Donaghy moved from Donegal to Australia with his mother and father and the rest of the family in 1988 where they carved out successful lives for themselves.
As a carpenter, he has worked on several high-end projects in his adopted home.