A business journalist with martial arts training has described how he not only confronted terrorists as they attacked at London Bridge but had intervened in a separate fight several minutes earlier.
Geoff Ho, business editor of the Sunday Express, was described as a hero for standing up to the three attackers and posting a message on Facebook declaring: “Not on my watch.” He has explained that his statement of defiance was related to another confrontation that took place outside the Southwark Tavern before the terrorists arrived.
He said on a friend’s website that he wished to clarify what had happened.
“I was involved in two separate incidents on Saturday night,” he wrote. “I had just left the Sheaf pub and saw two people attacking the bouncer at the Southwark Tavern.
“He was on his own and I held off the unarmed attackers until the police arrived. At that point I thought, ‘Job done, now for beer and food’.”
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He walked five doors along Stoney Street to Black and Blue, a steak restaurant that was one of the venues attacked by the terrorists, one of them wearing a football shirt.
“Most of my friends and the staff hid under tables but one of my friends was frozen behind me. I knew I had to face the attackers down, they were armed and I had the best chance of delaying them until the police arrived or they’d get everyone. I had to shield my friends and the people there.”
“I tried to slow them, they attacked. It happened so quickly,” he wrote. “The bastard in the Arsenal shirt came at me first. I think I got a hit in on one of them, but either he or his accomplice got me with a shot to the throat.”
The attackers managed to give his friend “a minor stab wound”. Mr Ho bundled his friend into the restaurant’s store room and called the police. He is now in the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel.
Roy Larner, the football fan who took on the attackers at Black and Blue, has told how he shouted, “F*** you, I’m Millwall” in response to their shouts of “Islam, Islam, Islam”. He received knife wounds to his head, chest and hands but continued to fight while other customers sought shelter.
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“He kept slashing and hacking away at me,” he told The Sun. “They were stabbing and slashing at me as I waved my arms for 20 or 30 seconds.” More than 4,000 supporters have now signed a petition for Mr Larner, 47, to be awarded the George Cross.
Another page raising money for him aimed to collect £500 but more than a thousand members of the public had left nearly £17,000 by last night.
Family and friends have been posting photos on social media of Mr Larner’s recovery in hospital. Among his scars and bandages, another souvenir can be seen: a magazine entitled Learn to Run.
Did you witness the London Bridge attack? Tell us your story. community@thetimes.co.uk