LONDON terror attack hero Ignacio Echeverría was not saving a woman's life when he was killed, but was helping a police officer to restrain the killers, the Galicia-born analyst's family reveals.
They admitted they fabricated the story about the woman being stabbed, because they feared that if he was still alive and other terror suspects were involved, they would find out where he lived and cause him harm.
But now he has been repatriated and his funeral is over, father and brother – both called Joaquín – say that according to Ignacio's friends, he saw a policeman trying to hold off the terrorists, got off his bike and went to help.
He beat one of the killers with his skateboard, but was stabbed in the back by another two.
Meanwhile, he still died a hero, as he managed to help the officer hold back the knife-wielding extremists for a whole 40 seconds – long enough for police back-up to arrive.
“Ignacio's friends saw, from a distance, that one of the terrorists was stabbing a woman, but a policeman rushed past them with a truncheon and stopped them,” said Joaquín junior.
“The officer was knocked to the ground in seconds.
“At this point, Ignacio got off his bike and ran to help the officer.
“We think he saw the policeman run towards the terrorists and went to help him pin them down so they would not carry on attacking.
“He wasn't exactly helping the woman directly, but he was trying to stop the attack, though.
“We know he stopped the terrorists for long enough to keep them back. He was fighting with them for about 40 seconds while more police were coming.
“But we spread the story about him rescuing a woman, because we were scared that if the terrorist organisation thought he was helping the police, if he was still alive and they found out where he lived, they would go after him.”
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