Bystander Hero Prevents Fatality in Golders Green Knife Attack on Jewish Man

A man who intervened during a knife attack on a Jewish man in Golders Green has told the BBC how he was trying to save a life. Ashkan Asadian rushed to help 76-year-old Moshe Shine as he was being attacked at a bus stop on Wednesday morning. Fearing Shine would be killed, Asadian said he tried to disarm the attacker. When the attacker later fled into a greengrocer's, Asadian barricaded him in with a shopping trolley, helping to give police enough time to arrive. Shine, who suffered serious injuries, has now been discharged from hospital.

CCTV footage showed Shine standing at a bus stop adjusting his kippah - a traditional cap - before he was attacked on the north London street. Moments later someone could be seen lunging at him before he tried to get away, with the attacker close behind.

Asadian, 61, said he had decided on the spur of the moment to intervene, having seen the stabbing right in front of him. "I saw him stabbing the old man in the neck," he told the BBC. He said when he saw the attacker was going to follow the victim he thought he was "definitely going to kill him" so felt he just had "to do something". He added that he did not think about whether it was dangerous or not at the time. "I try to maybe [see if] I can save someone's life."

He said that as he intervened the two men fell on to the main road - lying side by side on the ground, the knife still in the attacker's hand. "I just tried to keep him busy, get the knife," he said, adding he "tried a few times to catch the knife". "I try to kick his arm, maybe he [will] drop the knife, but I find out [it] is quite dangerous." He later found his own hoodie had been cut, with two spots of blood on it, but he was uninjured.

While Asadian distracted the attacker, Shine managed to escape, his neck bleeding badly. There was no-one else around to help, and Asadian said he backed off before seeing the attacker walk into the greengrocer's next to the bus stop, as if he was a "normal shopper". Asadian followed, shouting a warning to the woman behind the till that the man had a knife. He then barricaded the man in the shop with a shopping trolley, as a bystander called the police.

Eventually he decided it was too dangerous to leave the man in the shop, in case he attacked the staff, and moved aside. The attacker then calmly walked on down the road, Asadian said. When the police arrived, he pointed them in the direction the man had headed before waiting alongside another female bystander with Shine until an ambulance arrived. He said the lady was trying to stem the blood from the victim.

Shine was one of two victims who sustained serious injuries during the attack which began shortly after 11:15 BST on Wednesday.

Born in Iran, Asadian came to the UK in 1999, and now has British citizenship. His two children live in Golders Green. His family live close to the bus stop, in a block with Iranian and Jewish families living side by side. He said that as he risked his life to save Shine, geopolitics had not crossed his mind. "Religion, it doesn't matter," he said. "Jewish or non Jewish, just [they are] human." He hopes one day to see Shine again and check he is OK.