The Fishmongers’ Hall boss whose staff bravely faced down knife-wielding terrorist Usman Khan has revealed how Polish chef Lukasz engaged in brutal hand-to-hand comeback with the killer after hearing guests’ screams.
Commodore Toby Williamson, head of Fishmongers’ Hall, where Usman Khan began his rampage on Friday, said his employee took the tusk from the wall to fight the terrorist and ‘buy time for others to escape’.
The brave chef was knifed five times as he grappled with the attacker, with his boss saying: ‘Being stabbed didn’t stop him giving him a beating. Lukasz is a hero.’
Mr Williamson said on Mondya that kitchen worker Lukasz was one of the first to run towards danger after hearing a scream while cleaning glasses.
In a harrowing account, he told the BBC: ‘He gets there on the first floor of the building just behind me and it’s pretty clear that there’s a bad guy.
‘He’s got two knives in his hands, there’s blood, there’s screams, there’s chaos.
‘Lukasz pulls off the wall this long stick, he charges towards the bad guy and he impacts him on the chest and there’s clearly something here that is protective and it doesn’t make any sort of impact.
‘But he’s buying time, he allows others to escape.’
Commodore Williamson (pictured) said: ‘They took a decision that enough was enough, they took anything immediately to hand to level the odds against a mad man’
Mr Williamson said his ‘humble’ staff grabbed any weapons they could to ‘level the playing field’.
The former naval officer described how civilians turned heroes to try to disarm Khan – despite their belief that he was armed with a working bomb.
Astonishing footage showed two men on London Bridge – one brandishing an antique narwhal tusk grabbed from the conference hall, the other a fire extinguisher – confronting Khan.
Mr Williamson confirmed the man pictured with the narwhal tusk on London Bridge is not Lukasz, who he says is ‘too humble’ for any recognition, but another man who later picked it up.
He told Sky News: ‘You’re not going to see Lukasz. Firstly he’s too modest and secondly there’s no camera footage.’
He said of his staff: ‘They took a decision that enough was enough, they took anything immediately to hand to level the odds against a mad man.
‘No one could predict how this was going to happen. Start to finish, two minutes. But they were determined it wasn’t going to go on and they did exactly what they had to do, I am proud to know them.
‘They used fire extinguishers, they used chairs, they used these narwhal tusks ripped off the wall in the heat of the moment and they took the game back to the knifeman.’
Mr Williamson confirmed the man pictured with the narwhal tusk on the bridge is not Lukasz, who he says is ‘too humble’ for any recognition, but another man who later picked it up
Mr Williamson confirmed that the man who armed himself with the tusk was a Polish chef working at Fishmongers’ Hall, called Lukasz.
Yesterday it emerged he was being put forward for an official honour in Poland, acknowledging his ‘sacrifice and courage’.
Commodore Williamson also suggested that the fire-extinguisher hero was a member of the team called Andy.
One of the bystanders on London Bridge was seen holding a knife (left) which appeared to have been taken from the suspect. Another man – believed to be the knifeman – could be seen lying on the ground, close to a knife (circled, right)
‘Andy and Lukasz are just two of the most humble people you would know – they are maintainers, they are porters – and yet in the heat of the moment they do extraordinary things,’ he said.
Another civilian who risked his life returned to finish his shift washing dishes in a bar nearby just minutes later.
The man, in his 20s and known only as Mohammed, helped pin Khan down until police arrived, his boss told The Sun on Sunday.
‘He was on his break. He came back afterwards. He didn’t say anything, he went back to work, washing dishes.’