The British Indian man who tried to save a 7-year-old boy during the Barcelona terrorist attack last year has been selected for this year’s ‘Pride of Birmingham’ award. Harry Athwal was seen comforting the injured child in the midst of the terror attack in the Spanish city on Aug. 17, 2017.
Athwal is among the 11 winners of the Pride of Birmingham’s Outstanding Bravery Award organized by Birmingham Mail newspapers in partnership with TSB bank. The ceremony will be held on March 8.
Athwal was in Barcelona’s La Rambla area on Aug. 17, 2017 when a car drove into pedestrians, killing 13 people and injuring about 130.
The 45-year-old project manager from Great Barr area in Birmingham was in Spain with his sister and friends at the time. He said that he heard the screams of people and ran to help them. He stayed with 7-year-old Julian Alessandro Cadman, who was hit by the car, despite police orders to evacuate the area, until emergency services reached the spot.
The boy died on the spot and his family thanked Athwal for being there. He ran against the stream of people running away from the scene of carnage and found the boy on the street. He intended to take off his shirt and stem the bleeding but realized that the boy was dead when he looked closely. The child’s head had been crushed.
“I am a Sikh, and in Sikhism it is my duty to go and help somebody who is hurt or who is being bullied. That, in a sense, overtook me. I didn’t have time to think,” Athwal told the Birmingham Mail. “At that moment you have a split second to decide what you are going to do. It was my instinct that I had to go and help somebody. I had to do something. It’s in my DNA,” he said.
Athwal is also a father of two sons — 19-year-old Deirnn and 8-year-old Khye. He was in Barcelona only a week before for his 8-year-old son’s birthday.
“Then the van came into my vision for about five seconds. The noise was phenomenal as it hit people – thump after thump after thump. Straight away, I realized it was a terrorist attack. My heart was thumping in my chest. I shouted at the whole restaurant ‘Don’t move from here!’ and then I shot down the stairs,” he was reported as saying by the Mirror UK. He is still in touch with boy’s grandparents, Noreen and Tony Cadman, who have thanked him for his heroic actions.
The Islamic State group had assumed responsibility for the attack and four arrests have been made since.