Mr Guerot and Silas Despreaux, his friend, were walking to the gym on Saturday when they saw Cauchi – who had already stabbed 17 people including a baby – nearing a group of children.

“We just saw him coming … we were thinking, ‘We need to try to stop him’,” Mr Guerot told Seven News. “I saw a guy on the floor with a lot of blood, I saw one girl from the balcony get stabbed.”

He said that when he confronted Cauchi on the escalator, the killer had “empty eyes”.

“He wasn’t there,” Mr Guerot said. “We tried to throw the bollard. We really wanted to stop him.”

The friends also used a metal chair to block Cauchi.

Referring to Insp Scott, who shot Cauchi dead when he lunged towards her with the knife, Mr Guerot said: “She was the hero, she did the job. We just did what we did.”