An MP has praised the “extraordinary courage” of local people who intervened during a stabbing attack in north Belfast.
Local MP John Finucane said he believes they may have saved the life of the victim, a man aged in his 40s, during the incident in the Kinnaird Avenue area on Monday night.
A man, aged in his 30s, has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder.
Footage circulating shows people, including one with a hurling stick, intervening to stop the man attacking the victim in the residential area close to the busy Antrim Road in the city.
Mr Finucane said he wanted to thank those people who intervened.
“They showed extraordinary courage and bravery to step in, to put themselves in danger to save, I think possibly, a man’s life because of their selfless acts, and I want, on behalf of everybody I’m sure, to thank them for that,” he told Press Association at the scene on Tuesday morning.
Mr Finucane said his thoughts first and foremost are with the victim, and his family and friends, but also with residents who witnessed what happened, police who came upon a horrific scene, and first responders from the Ambulance Service.
He characterised the area as a quiet residential one inhabited by families, a “very normal part of Belfast”, where people woke on Tuesday to find “something so horrific had taken place on their doorstep”.
“It was absolutely shocking for them, they are now witnesses in a live police investigation into an attempted murder,” he said.
“There were people returning from work, there were people who happened to pass by, there were those who intervened, and they are quite naturally traumatised and upset.
“They find themselves, in a fairly quiet neighbourhood, now the focus of both local and international media attention.
“They will need all of the support that they can get in the time ahead, and they need to be free to provide their evidence to the police, so police have the strongest evidence to ensure that somebody is charged, brought before our courts and feels the full weight of our criminal justice process.”
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