Prime Minister's extraordinary offer for "Bollard Man"
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has made an extraordinary offer to the hero dubbed "Bollard Man", who confronted Joel Cauchi on his rampage through Bondi Junction Westfield.
Damien Guerot, a French national, was inside the eastern suburbs shopping centre when Cauchi began his stabbing spree which resulted in six lives lost.
In CCTV footage of the terrifying incident that has made the rounds online, Mr Guerot could be seen fending off the knifeman with the use of a bollard he’d picked up off the ground.
It’s understood he was preventing the attacker from reaching an area where dozens of children had been playing.
He was immediately hailed as a hero on social media, where he became known as “Bollard Man”.
As the community continues to reel from the incident, Mr Albanese thanked Guerot for his "extraordinary bravery" and encouraged him to become an Australian citizen.
“I say this to Damien Guerot, who is dealing with his visa application, that you are welcome here,” he said.
“You are welcome to stay for as long as you like, this is someone who we would welcome becoming an Australian citizen.”
The prime minister said the actions of bystanders like Mr Guerot during the horrific Bondi Junction attack showed “the best of human character”.
“It says a lot about the nature of humanity at a time when we are facing difficult issues, that someone who is not a citizen of this country stood bravely at the top of those escalators and stopped this perpetrator from getting onto another floor and potentially inflicting further carnage on citizens,” he said.
Mr Guerot told 7News how he stared into Cauchi’s “empty eyes” as he confronted the killer.
“We just saw him coming ... we were thinking, ‘We need to try to stop him’,” he said.
Image credits: 7News