bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

sponsorType

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

The Guardian

Associated Press

A martial artist who fought two terrorists armed with knives has emerged as one of the heroes of the London terror attack.
Sunday Express business journalist and kung fu aficionado Geoff Ho was stabbed in the throat when he intervened as the pair attacked a bouncer at a pub in Borough Market, in what he thought was a fight - but turned out to be a terrorist attack later claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group.
Islamic State jihadists claim responsibility for London terror attack
Ho wrote on Facebook: “Don’t know whether it was stupid or noble to jump in and break up the fight outside the Southwark Tavern, but two a***s trying to do over the lone bouncer on the door isn’t happening on my watch.”
Ho was filmed shirtless as he was led away from the scene by a police officer on Saturday night. He was walking calmly but clutching his throat to staunch the flow of blood.


Friends had issued a plea for information about Ho’s whereabouts in the immediate aftermath of the attack.
A pint-sized symbol of defiance in London
His friend Isabelle Oderberg later tweeted: “We have found Geoff. He is in intensive care.” She told the Melbourne newspaper The Age: “He is actually a martial artist and I wouldn’t be surprised if he would have stood up and been counted because he’s just that type of person.”
Early Monday morning, Ho tweeted that he had undergone surgery and “on the mend”.
Ho was not the only Londoner to take the fight to the terrorists, who would eventually be cut down in a hail of police gunfire.

Thank you every one for the best wishes. I got out of surgery yesterday and am on the mend.
— Geoff Ho (@FinanceHog) June 5, 2017

<![CDATA[// ><!]]>

Richard Angell was also drinking in Borough Market when he saw someone throw a table and realised it was a “heroic guy who saw what was happening”, and was trying to keep the attackers at bay.
The man, later identified as Gerard Vowls, picked up whatever was handy — chairs, a stool and bottles of beer - and started hurling them at the terrorists.
Islamic State jihadists lay claim to London terror attack
“I went ‘Oi, terrorists, cowards, Oi!’” Vowls said. He was hoping to lure them toward a main road and into the line of fire of police. Vowls ran and found a local beat officer, saying he knew where the attackers were. Despite being unarmed in a country where few police carry firearms, the two started back toward the restaurant.
By then, full-blown panic had set in at Borough Market.
Rhiannon Owen, a student nurse studying in London, said she was standing at a cash machine when a taxi driver saved her life.
I went ‘Oi, terrorists, cowards, Oi!’
Gerard Vowls, who tried to lure the attackers towards police
“The taxi driver just swerved toward me and screamed, ‘Run! You have to run! They’ve got a knife!’” she said. “His face was just like something was so wrong, and I just started running as fast as I could. There was sirens everywhere, people screaming, the glass was smashed in one shop. There was a guy, he was injured. I just ran.”
Even as one of the attackers followed behind her, she called out to others to run away. She slipped into a pub where she hid upstairs with 40 others.
Nearby, Florin Morariu was at the Bread Ahead bakery where he works when he glanced out the window and saw people running.
“They were fainting, falling and we went outside to see what was happening,” he said.
Morariu saw men with knives attack someone, and did the only thing he could think of: he hurled a big bread basket he was holding at the attacker’s head.
Moments later, gunshots rang out.
“So many gunshots. We were just lying on the floor like, everyone was introducing ourselves, trying to keep each other calm, giving each other water and stuff,” Owen said.
Vowls arrived moments later to see the assailants’ bodies, which wore what looked like explosive vests. Police called out that they were rigged to blow, though Vowls wondered why — if they were real — the men hadn’t detonated them inside one of the pubs.
But that’s not the image that haunts Vowls. He woke from a nightmare before dawn on Sunday.
“I saw a vision of the poor woman being stabbed, and the three guys — the three terrorists — stabbing her, and she was going ‘Help me, help me!’ and then I woke up and I started screaming,” he said.
“I’ll have her in my mind for the rest of my life.”

‘Not on my watch’: heroic martial artist Geoff Ho fought two knife-wielding London terrorists

A combination of photos shows Sunday Express journalist and martial artist Geoff Ho. On the left, he is seen in a still taken from video showing him bleeding heavily from the neck, being helped by a police officer, after being stabbed by a terrorist attacker in Borough Market on Saturday night. Photos: Supplied / Facebook

Journalist Geoff Ho, who was stabbed in the neck when he confronted two knife-weilding terrorsts in London on saturday night. Photo: Twitter

Geoff Ho's Facebook post about the incident. Photo: Facebook

Islamic State jihadists claim responsibility for London terror attack

Police officers on duty stand next to floral tributes on Southwark Street in London, on Sunday, near the scene of Saturday's terror attack. Photo: AP

In this image made from PA Video footage, people receive medical attention in Thrale Street near London Bridge following a terrorist incident Sunday, June 4, 2017. Terrorism struck at the heart of London, police said Sunday, after a vehicle veered off the road and mowed down pedestrians on London Bridge and gunshots rang out amid reports of knife attacks at nearby Borough Market. (Federica De Caria/PA via AP)

epaselect epa06010706 Crime scene investigators search for evidence on London Bridge the day after attacks on the bridge and surrounding areas, London, Britain, 04 June 2017. At least seven members of the public were killed and dozens injured after three attackers on late 03 June plowed a van into pedestrians and later randomly stabbed people on London Bridge and nearby Borough Market. The three attackers wearing fake suicide vests were shot dead by police who are treating the attack as a 'terrorist incident.' EPA/ANDRE PAIN

TOPSHOT - Armed police stand over what is believed to be a suspect shot at the scene of a terror attack outside Borough Market in central London on June 3, 2017. A van ploughed into pedestrians and several people were stabbed in London on Saturday, leaving at least 20 casualties in what police called a "terrorist" attack days before a general election. Armed police opened fire during two "terrorist incidents" at London Bridge and nearby Borough Market, a popular nightspot teeming with bars. / AFP PHOTO / Gabriele SCIOTTO

News

World

Europe

Tales of defiance and heroism from everyday Londoners caught up in the terrorist attacks have begun to emerge
