A suspected Islamist stabbed passers-by in Rotterdam on Thursday night, killing one victim and seriously injuring another. However, the attack could have been much worse: a fitness trainer overpowered the stabber. “I gave him a few punches in the face,” he said after intervening.
The attacker struck near the Erasmus Bridge in the city centre. The man shouted “Allahu Akbar” (God is great), witnesses reported.
“Logical” reaction
Fitness trainer Reniël Renato David Litecia is welcomed as a hero after his intervention. He told De Telegraaf that his actions were “logical” to him. “At first I thought there was a fight. I wanted to calm the situation, but when I came closer running, I saw that something else was going on,” said the 32-year-old.
Eventually, he realized that a man “with two long knives” was attacking a young boy riding a scooter. “As I was yelling at the knife attacker, he turned around and became aggressive with everyone around him. My client, who I was training at the time, was already safe at that point. I asked her to call 911.”
Attacker chased refugees into museum
The attacker then approached people who were at a reception. Litecia explained that he warned these people by shouting. “They didn’t recognize the danger.” His shouting made them run into the museum, but the perpetrator followed them.
The suspect went on a rampage there and the receptionists tried to protect themselves with tables and chairs. When the attacker ran outside again, Litecia finally got a stick.
“When the man came to the door, I was there. I gave him a few punches in the face,” said the fitness trainer, who was eventually able to overpower and disarm the enraged man.
Source: Krone
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