Romanian baker who hit one of the terrorists in London and sheltered 20 people hailed in the media as hero
Romanian baker Florin Morariu hit an attacker over the head with a crate and let 20 terrified people into the bakery where he works during the terror attack on Bourough Market in London on Saturday.
Florin Morariu, hailed on social media as a hero after taking in the people and apprehending the attacker, said he doesn’t consider himself a hero, saying that “any person should have done the same thing as I did”.
The baker, who works at the Bread Ahead bakery in the market, told The Associated Press: “We were looking out of the window because we saw that everyone was agitated, everyone was running, people, women… they were fainting, falling and we went outside to see what was happening.”
He said when he went outside and saw two people stabbing others, he at first “froze” and didn’t know what to do. But then he went and hit one of the attackers on the head with a crate.
“There was a car with a loudspeaker saying ‘go, go’ and they (police) threw a grenade…. and then I ran.”
The baker, who was working a night-shift when the terrorists struck, said that people had tried to stop him leaving the relative security of the bakery to confront the terrorists with his two bread crates.
“They said ‘It’s a terrorist attack,’ and ‘Can’t you see people are dead’ but I walked out the door,” he told the radio station.
Morariu said that when he saw an attacker stabbing someone he first thought about fleeing, but decided against it because he thought he might be caught.
“So I took a crate and threw it at the attacker and then ran towards him and used the other crate to hit him on the head.”
He added that when he saw that “people were desperate,” he let about 20 people into the bakery and pulled the shutters down.
In an interview for Romanian radio station ProFM after the attack, Morariu said that he now feared he could be the target of a revenge attack.
“I don’t want any money and I didn’t want to be a hero. The only thing I want now is to be given some protection,” he explained. “Frankly, I’m disappointed. I tried to do good; to do the right thing, but no-one from the police has called me to discuss security,” the Romanian baker said. adding that no one has contacted him from the Romanian embassy.
In retort, the Romanian ambassador in UK, Dan Mihalache, told a TV station on Monday that he would talk at the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to propose president Klaus Iohannis that the Romanian should be decorated. The ambassador also said that he would talk to the British authorities so that Morariu could benefit of protection.
“I talked to him personally on Sunday. I agreed that on Tuesday he comes to the Romanian Embassy and we’ll establish together some protection measures that of course, the embassy cannot take, for we have no resources, but together with our partners in Great Britain we’ll see what we can do so that he can have a minimum protection,” ambassador Mihalache stated.