Six people were killed in a stabbing attack in Sydney on Saturday. Frenchman Damien Guerot intervened with a pole to try to stop the attacker.
On Saturday, a stabbing attack in a Sydney shopping center left six people dead, five women and a security guard. The toll could have increased without the intervention of Damien Guerot. The construction company worker was going to the gym with a friend on the day of the attack. He was nicknamed “the pole man” since he faced the attacker on an escalator with a queue guide pole in an attempt to fend him off.
An act of bravery accomplished with a compatriot, Silas Despreaux. “We tried to catch him, but he was coming down the stairs… so we followed him from the top, to try to throw the post at him, but we didn’t succeed,” Damien Guerot told Channel 7 News. They then grabbed chairs to track down the attacker. Images of his intervention went around the Internet.
Furthermore, Damien Guerot saw his current visa expire in a month. This is why a petition called for the granting of Australian citizenship to the Frenchman for his courage: it received more than 1,600 signatures in less than two days. This Tuesday, April 16, according to BFMTV, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced that Damien Guerot will be offered Australian citizenship: “I tell Damien Guerot, who takes care of his visa applications, that he is the welcome here and he can stay as long as he wants.”
“He is someone we would happily welcome as an Australian citizen, although of course it would be a loss for France. We thank him for his extraordinary bravery,” he added. According to the Prime Minister, the Frenchman prevented the attacker from going up an additional floor and “potentially committing further carnage”.