A cub scout leader and mother-of-two has been hailed a hero after she fearlessly confronted one of the men accused of hacking a man to death in London today.
Ingrid Loyau-Kennett, 48, may have prevented further injuries after she approached the man, who menacingly held the bloodied knife he reportedly used in the attack.
She had just hopped off a bus to help the victim, believed to be a British soldier, she saw lying in the street.
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After finding no pulse on the victim, she looked up to see one attacker standing over her with “what looked like butcher’s tools”.
“So I thought ‘OK, I don’t know what is going on here’ and he was covered with blood. I thought I had better start talking to him before he starts attacking somebody else,” Loyau-Kennett, 48, told The Telegraph.
“I thought these people usually have a message so I said ‘what do you want?
“I asked him if he did it and he said yes and I said why? And he said because he has killed Muslim people in Muslim countries, he said he was a British soldier and I said really, and he said ‘I killed him because he killed Muslims and I am fed up with people killing Muslims in Afghanistan – they have nothing to do there.”
Loyau-Kennett, noticed more people surrounding the scene. The alleged attackers appeared to be waiting for police to arrive.
“I started to talk to him and I started to notice more weapons and the guy behind him with more weapons as well. By then, people had started to gather around. So I thought OK, I should keep him talking to me before he noticed everything around him.
“I said ‘right now it is only you versus many people, you are going to lose, what would you like to do?’ and he said I would like to stay and fight.”
The mother, who lives in Cornwall, then approached the other attacker and asked if he wanted to hand over his weapons.
Police arrived soon after and shot the two men. They were taken to separate hospitals and one is in a serious condition.
Local politician, Patrick Mercer, told The Telegraph that Loyau-Kennett’s actions and those of other witnesses showed “courage of the highest order”.