Bondi Beach shooting: Bystander who tackled armed man hailed as hero

Amid chaos and bloodshed as two gunmen went on a rampage at Sydney’s Bondi Beach during a celebration of the Jewish festival of Hanukkah, a bystander won global praise by risking his life to wrest the gun out of one of the shooters’ possession, proving once again that not all heroes wear capes.

43-year-old Ahmed al Ahmed, a local fruit shop owner, is being hailed as a hero after a video went viral showing him tackling and disarming an armed man during Sunday’s deadly attack at Sydney. Ahmed charged at a man dressed in black, who was holding a rifle.

He then tackled the armed man from behind, wrenching the rifle from him with his hands before pointing the gun back at the man. The video then shows the man in a dark shirt backing away towards a bridge where another shooter is positioned, while the bystander places the gun down on the ground.