Young man uses fire extinguisher to save woman from knife attack in Vietnam
Translated from Vietnamese, summarized and contextualized by DistantNews.
At a glance
- A young man in Hai Phong, Vietnam, used a fire extinguisher to stop an attacker from stabbing a woman.
- Pham The Huy Hoang, 21, intervened when the assailant attacked the woman after she fell off her motorbike.
- The woman has since recovered, and Hoang was honored for his bravery.
Pham The Huy Hoang, a 21-year-old from Hai Phong, Vietnam, recounted the moment he used a fire extinguisher to subdue a man attacking a woman. The incident occurred early on June 2, when Hoang saw a man behaving erratically and carrying a weapon.
At that moment, I was also panicked, so I shouted for people around to help the victim, but no one came. I quickly took off my helmet, used it to hit the man, but he still didn't stop. Because I had experience with firefighting before, I ran to the gas station, took the fire extinguisher, and sprayed it directly at the man's face.
Hoang and others tried to distract the man, following him until he stopped and attacked a woman who had fallen off her motorbike. When bystanders hesitated to help, Hoang, recalling his previous fire safety experience, grabbed a fire extinguisher from a nearby gas station and sprayed it at the attacker's face. The man, momentarily disoriented, dropped his knife and struck Hoang, but missed.
The man was suffocating from the gas, and he threw the knife at me but missed. Seeing the man lose focus, I hit the man on the head with the fire extinguisher, causing him to become dazed, and then he left.
Hoang then struck the man with the extinguisher, causing him to become dazed and flee. He then helped the injured woman get to the hospital, where she later recovered. Hoang expressed relief that the woman was out of danger and that he remained unharmed, despite later learning the attacker had HIV.
I was also very scared at that time, but in the blood of the Vietnamese people, when we see someone in difficulty or danger, we must help. At the same time, the thought flashed through my mind: what if it were my parents or relatives? So I decided not to mind the danger and jumped in to help.
Originally published by Tuแปi Trแบป in Vietnamese. Translated, summarized, and contextualized by our editorial team with added local perspective. Read our editorial standards.