Four stabbed as knifeman rampages before being wrestled to the ground with crutches by onlookers in New Zealand

A KNIFEMAN rampaged and stabbed four people before being attacked by an innocent hero with his crutches.

Frightened people fled for their lives after being chased by a man with a “big knife” during the horror attack in Auckland, New Zealand.

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Superintendent Naila Hassan said four members of the public were stabbed in the “random” attacks.

Members of the public who acted or helped, including someone using a crutch, “acted with bravery” to attack the man with “a fairly large knife,” she said.

Police said the incident happened around 11:18 a.m. when the man stabbed the resident of a property.

He then went to the beach in the North Shore area, where three people were also stabbed near a bus stop.

One woman said she had to run away screaming and calling for help after the man chased her.

“I was wearing headphones and I wanted to take the headphones off to speak to him because I thought that’s what he wanted,” she told the New Zealand Herald.

But there was something about the man that made her nervous, and then “he just started running towards me,” she said.

A witness told Stuff a construction worker used his crutches to stop the suspected stabber, who was wearing a hoodie.

The man was stalking a 17-year-old girl who was screaming, she said.

The witness said: “We thought she was being silly, she was screeching. He stabbed two people at random…it all happened very quickly.”

The man was injured when he was attacked and was now being guarded by police at North Shore Hospital, Supt Hassan said.

She said the incident would not be treated as a hate crime.