low graphics version | feedback | help
| Front Page World |
| UK |
|
Northern Ireland Scotland Wales |
| UK Politics Business Sci/Tech Health Education Sport Entertainment Talking Point In Depth AudioVideo |
Worshippers describe church panic
People fled as the swordsman lashed out |
Witnesses at the church where a nude swordsman attacked worshippers have spoken of their horror at the injuries he inflicted.
Marie Parcou, 66, from Thornton Heath, south London, said she had pulled her retired railway worker husband Jules, 73, to the floor to stop the attacker killing him.
"My husband was spouting blood and I had to pull him to the ground before the maniac chopped his head off," she said, visibly shaken at seeing her husband repeatedly hacked with the weapon.
She also told how parishioners were slipping on blood on the church floor as they scrambled for safety. The attacker was waving the sword with his right hand and indiscriminately slashing victims.
 It was like something out of a horror movie  |
| Marie Parcou |
Three needed surgery, three others suffered minor sword wounds and another three had "sprain-type injuries".
Consultant Kambiz Hashemi said the most seriously hurt patient had suffered the worst injuries to his face he had seen during 15 years as a consultant.
"It is a miracle that his main artery was not cut and that he managed to run out of the church," he said.
About 500 people were in the church |
"He was struggling a lot and shouting, but I don't know what he was saying," Mr Surandran said, adding that the weapon was "like a Samurai sword".
People at the front of the church, including local businessman Charles Ssuna, were alerted by a boy who ran full pelt up the aisle for safety.
Mr Ssuna said: "I saw the man completely naked with a long sword. It was gold and metal."
He saw one man who had his mouth slashed up to his cheek by the sword.
Nurse Nanette Frederiksson, who was taking children's liturgy in the adjoining church hall, said its doors were "flung open" by people fleeing the attacker. She offered to help the injured in the aftermath.
'Slash on face'
"I picked up some of the children, one of my own and two others, and went rushing out of the church hall. I ran round to Father John McGrory's house and saw an elderly lady badly injured across her face."
Nanette Frederiksson feared for her children |
The Canon John Lennon, 78, who carried on saying Mass after the drama, said he was told that a man had his hand cut clean off outside the church.
"Two ladies inside the church were very badly slashed," he said.
"I thought I had seen everything over the years but nothing as awful as this. There was such awful panic, people were so terrified."
|
Search BBC News Online |
|
|
 Advanced search options | |
| |
 | |
 | |
| |
 | BBC RADIO NEWS |
| |
| |
 | BBC ONE TV NEWS |
| |
| |
| WORLD NEWS SUMMARY |
| |
| |
| |
| |
 | PROGRAMMES GUIDE |
|
|
See also: |
|
 |
|
 |
28 Nov 99 | UK |
|
Pc hailed for stopping swordsman |
| |
|
|
28 Nov 99 | UK |
|
Nude swordsman attacks worshippers |
| |
Links to other UK stories are at the foot of the page.
E-mail this story to a friend
~RS~a~RS~international~RS~q~RS~~RS~z~RS~04~RS~)