Hero newsagent who risked his life to save boy from knife attack
THIS is the moment a shopkeeper risked his life to save a teenager who had been chased into his store by a youth brandishing a foot-long knife.
Abbas Solak was working behind the counter when the boy sprinted in and tried to slam the door shut.
Mr Solak dashed to help the teen slam the door of his shop, Bon Bon in Hackney, east London, as the thug smashed through the glass.
Mr Solak pushed the youth to safety just as the yob armed, who was also said to have been carring a machete, forced his way through the door.
The attacker, who attempted to cover his face while also holding a mobile phone to film the assault, then slashed wildly at his would-be victim but Mr Solak saved the teenager from harm. The knifeman, who was wearing a baseball cap emblazoned with the word SACK, also lunged wildly at the shopkeeper.
The attack was halted when a passer- by intervened and grabbed the man by the shoulders before dragging him from the shop and into the street.
The attackers threw a mop at the men left inside the shop.
Police said no one was injured in the incident which occurred just after 9pm on Saturday, October 8.
Mr Solak said the unnamed teenager remained in his shop for five minutes, but did not say ‘thank you’ before he left.
The shopkeeper told the Hackney Gazette: ‘If someone’s life is threatened you have to do something. You have to be brave sometimes. I didn’t think about what could have happened.
‘I thought about closing up the shop, but I had to work. We keep the door open anyway. He just left when I was on the phone without saying thank you.’
A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: ‘ Detectives from Hackney are investigating an allegation of affray. A man entered a shop and was pursued by two other men, one of whom was armed with a knife.
‘No one was reported injured in the incident. There have been no arrests at this time. Inquiries continue.’