A BRIT holidaymaker who was slashed by a machete maniac chased his attacker into the sea while blood poured from his leg.
Ian Tickhill, from Hull, East Yorkshire, was relaxing on a sun bed next to his wife Debby in Agadir, Morocco, on Thursday afternoon when they were attacked.
MirrorpixIan and Debby Tickhill were relaxing on sun beds when they were attacked[/caption]
The 58-year-old said it “was over in a matter of seconds” and there was “no mass hysteria”.
Ian said, in fact, that he didn’t realise he had been wounded when he ran across the sand to ward off the attacker.
He said the man fled into the sea with his blade and locals rushed down from the promenade and helped form a guard to prevent the man getting back out.
Ian said the man had allegedly threatened to take his own life if the police got any closer.
So they simply waited for him to tire himself out as he trod water before detaining him.
Ian told The Mirror: “I don’t understand where he thought he was going because next stop is the Canary Islands.
“He caught five of us altogether. By the time he got to the sea I think he’d lost it and didn’t know what else to do. [The police] just thought ‘we’ll wait’ because he had quite a heavy tracksuit on, it’s not going to take long for you when you’re treading water in hot weather.”
The couple said seen the man come down from the footpath in front of the beach at around 4pm before running down the first line of sunbeds.
Ian said he didn’t think he was specifically targeting anyone and he and his wife, 56, were just unlucky.
He said: “As he hit my wife I went to stand up and that’s how he caught my leg,” he explained.
“I started chasing him and that’s when my wife shouted me back and I thought I better go and see if she’s injured. She told me I was bleeding.”
He added: “The first lady he hit is actually a Belgian-Moroccan lady. She looks like a typical local. He wasn’t targeting white people or anything. He didn’t even shout anything. He just ran down.
“There’s only 100 metres of beach before you’re in the sea and that’s literally how long it took. At first I thought he’d hit me with a baton or a truncheon or something. I just wrapped my towel round it. They took us in an ambulance to the hospital.”
Debby suffered a slash wound on her back.
The pair spent around 90 minutes being treated at the hospital before giving statements to the police and they returned to their hotel by 7.30pm.
Ian had internal and external stitches on his calf.
He said cops had told him the man has mental health problems, is a drug addict and had been arrested before.
The pair have already returned to the beach to enjoy the rest of their break and are due to fly back to Britain on Monday.
Ian said: “It could happen anywhere, you’re walking down any city in the world, you meet an idiot.
“People with small kids were just getting the kids out of the way, which you’d expect.
“The police patrol the beach anyway, there are police there all the time. He must have noticed the pattern and just gone for a gap. If he had hit a kid, a small child it would have been bad, but fortunately it wasn’t. They’re making something out of nothing. I’d definitely come back.”
A spokesperson for the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said: “We are assisting two British people following an incident in Morocco and are in contact with the local authorities.”
MirrorpixIan thought at first he had been hit with a baton or truncheon[/caption]
MirrorpixIan needed internal and external stitches to his calf but was soon back at his hotel[/caption]