Homeless man helped stop Melbourne attack by ramming shopping trolley into knifeman

Bystander dubbed ‘trolley man’ says he wanted to help police ‘protect safety of others’

A homeless man nicknamed “trolley man” has spoken about his role in helping to stop an attacker during Friday’s deadly terror incident in the Australian city of Melbourne.

Michael Rogers, 46, revealed how he rammed a shopping trolley into Hassan Khalif Shire Ali, the man believed to have stabbed one person to death and injured two others.

Witness footage shared on social media showed Mr Rogers moving towards Ali, shoving the cart at the attacker while he ran around with a knife.

“I ran, threw the trolley straight at him, got him, but didn’t get him down,” Mr Roger told Australia’s 7 News. “I did that motion quite a number of times but it just wasn’t getting him down.”

Although Mr Roger’s trolley was able to briefly contain Ali, the attacker continued to wave the knife and lunge at police officers.

He was shot by police and died in hospital.

One witness said Mr Rogers told her his efforts were “just instinctive to help the police protect the safety of others”.

A police officer reportedly shook his hand to thank him for his bid to subdue the attacker.

The 46-year-old, described as a hero by many Australians on social media, is currently sleeping rough on the streets of Melbourne, according to the Sunday Herald Sun.

The violence began shortly after 4pm on Friday when Ali crashed a pick-up truck in the busy shopping district, got out and threw an object inside the vehicle that set it alight.

Australian authorities are treating the violence as a terror attack. Counter-terrorism officials believe Somali-born Ali was radicalised and inspired by Islamist group Isis.

Officers searched two properties in suburban Melbourne on Saturday as part of their investigation.

Although his passport was cancelled in 2015 after he made plans to travel to Syria, he was not being actively monitored by the security services prior to the Bourke Street attack.

Australian prime minister Scott Morrison declared “radical, violent, extremist Islam” the country’s current greatest threat. He said the national terrorism advisory remained at “probable”.

Mr Morrison urged Muslim leaders to make sure dangerous ideologies do not take hold in Australia, explaining that “they must be proactive, they must be alert and they must call this out, in their communities and more broadly, for what it is".

Sisto Malaspina, the 74-year-old owner of Pellegrini’s Espresso Bar, has been named as the victim who died in the attack.

Rod Patterson, 58, and an unnamed 26-year-old were hospitalised with non-life threatening wounds.