A man who intervened during the stabbing attacks in Golders Green has described how he was trying to save a life.
Ashkan Asadian, 61, rushed to help when Moshe Shine, 76, was attacked at a bus stop on Wednesday morning, and tried to disarm his attacker.
Mr Asadian then barricaded the attacker in a greengrocer's with a shopping trolley when he attempted to flee, giving police enough time to arrive.
Mr Shine suffered serious injuries in the attack, but has now been discharged from hospital.
CCTV footage showed Shine standing at a bus stop adjusting his kippah before he was attacked.
Mr Asadian told the BBC that he decided to intervene on the spur of the moment, with the stabbing occurring right in front of him.
He said: "I saw him stabbing the old man in the neck."
Mr Asadian added that when he saw the attacker was going to follow the victim, he thought he was "definitely going to kill him" so felt he had "to do something".
He said he did not think about whether it was dangerous or not, but "I try to maybe [see if] I can save someone's life."
As Mr Asadian intervened, the two men fell onto the road, with the knife still in the attacker's hand.
Mr Asadian said: "I just tried to keep him busy, get the knife.
"I try to kick his arm, maybe he [will] drop the knife, but I find out [it] is quite dangerous."
Shine managed to escape with a badly bleeding neck, but with no one else around, Mr Asadian felt compelled to act again when the attacker walked into the greengrocer's next to the bus stop as if he was a "normal shopper".
He shouted a warning to the woman behind the till that the man had a knife, before barricading the attacker in the shop with a shopping trolley while a bystander called the police.
He eventually moved aside when he decided it was too dangerous to leave the man in the shop in case he attacked the staff.
When the police arrived, Mr Asadian pointed them in the direction the attacker had headed, and waited with Mr Shine until an ambulance arrived, alongside a lady who was trying to stem the blood from his neck wound.
He later found his own hoodie had been cut, with two spots of blood on it, but he was uninjured.
Mr Asadian was born in Iran, and came to the UK in 1999. He has British citizenship, and his two children live in Golders Green.
His family lives nearby, in a block where Iranian and Jewish families live side by side.
He told the BBC that geopolitics did not cross his mind as he intervened to help Mr Shine.
"Religion, it doesn't matter. Jewish or non Jewish, just [they are] human," he said.
He hopes one day to see Mr Shine again, and check he is OK.
Essa Suleiman, 45, has been charged with the attempted murder of Mr Shine and Shloime Rand, 34, following the attacks in Golders Green.
He has also been charged with the attempted murder of Ishmail Hussein, in south London earlier the same day, a man he has known for around 20 years.
Suleiman’s next court appearance will be at the Old Bailey on May 15.
