A hero kickboxer overpowered a suspected terrorist and stopped him from killing more people.
Witnesses told how a man was swinging a kitchen knife wildly at passersby yesterday (19 Sep) evening.
A 32-year-old local man was killed and a 33-year-old foreign man was seriously injured.
READ MORE: ‘Killer’ with bullet in forehead ‘tries to drink beer’ as cops take him away
The knifeman allegedly yelled “Allahu Akbar” – which is “God is Great” in Arabic – as he carried out his stabbing spree.
The blade of his kitchen knife was about 30 cm (12 in) long, according to witnesses.
The horror unfolded on the Willemsplein riverside square in Rotterdam, Holland.
Reniël Renato David Litecia was training one of his students there at the time.
He told local media “I shouted to the woman I was training ‘Get to safety, run onto the bridge and call 112.’”
Litecia, also a personal trainer, chased after the knifeman, who had run towards an art centre.
Inside, about 50 people had taken cover behind tables and chairs in a bid to save themselves.
Litecia recalled: “He wanted to get out. But that wasn’t possible anymore because I was standing there.
“If I didn’t take him down, he would take me down and attack the other people.
“There were some older folks behind me. They were scared too. So I knew I had to take him down.”
Litecia broke a steel-and-foam squat bar in half and “hit him right in the face” with the makeshift weapon.
Others in the art centre then started throwing chairs at the bloodied knifeman, as reported by NeedToKnow.
Litecia recalled: “He had nowhere to go. He became dizzy from the blows and started to wobble.”
After he fell to the ground, the PT “crossed and held his feet” while “others held his hands behind his back”.
The kickboxer dislocated his little finger in the struggle with the suspect but later “popped it back in myself”.
The police are investigating the case but cannot yet say if they believe it was an act of terrorism.
The badly-wounded man is from Switzerland, while the suspect has been identified as a 22-year-old from Amersfoort.
Litecia said of the deceased victim: “The man who died was just skating. He was stabbed multiple times.
“He happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
The suspect is being questioned today (20 Sep).
