Undocumented Algerian Man Rescues Woman from Knife Attack in French Park

"I saw a man coming towards me and asked me what I was doing there walking alone. I told him I must have gotten lost and wanted to go back to my car. When I turned my back, he followed me, chased me, before throwing himself on me and pinning me to the ground," recounts to Le Parisien this resident of another municipality in the department who was walking in the Bois de la Montagne-de-Chelles on Saturday evening.

It all happened very quickly for this 22-year-old woman. "He got on my back and shoved my face into the ground. I couldn’t see anything anymore. He ordered me to do whatever he wanted. He hit me violently with his elbows on the skull before bringing his knife close to my face and then to my throat. I felt that his intention was to rape me!", she continues.

Her first cries for help from the victim went unheard.

"I screamed, I called for help, I struggled with all my might! It seemed endless but after about 15 minutes, while I was seeing the end coming, I managed to turn around, push away and block the hand with which he was holding the knife. [...] He calmed down suddenly, telling me not to worry and that he was going to let me go without doing anything to me. I found that weird and asked him how I could be sure he was going to let me go. He replied that if I didn’t move, nothing would happen," she adds.

She takes advantage of this silence to be attentive to the slightest noise. "I heard a rustling in the leaves, it could have been an animal but also a walker, so I called for help with all my might!" she says. This time, someone heard her cries. Abderrahim, an Algerian who walks every day on this path of the Montagne-de-Chelles because of the lack of space available in the two hotel rooms where he and his family are housed by the SAMU.

"I had to make the decision to rescue her in an instant. I told myself that if I left her there I would regret it for the rest of my life and I would never be able to look myself in the mirror. But on the other hand he had a weapon the size of a butcher’s knife with which he could have hurt my children," says the father of the family.

"He’s my savior, without him I would certainly no longer be alive or I would only be a shadow of myself! I can never thank him enough, I am extremely grateful to him. His gesture is heroic! I hope he will get French citizenship, he deserves it much more than some French people who behave badly!" admits the victim, adding that "his gesture is heroic! I hope he will get French citizenship, he deserves it much more than some French people who behave badly!"