Australian barber hailed as hero for running to save lawmaker in vehicle attack

SYDNEY - Australian barber Ricky Jefferies has been hailed as a hero for running out of his store to detain a man who authorities allege deliberately drove a car into lawmaker Helen Haines in the small town of Wangaratta, an incident that has shocked the country.

Jefferies had just finished haircuts for a young family on Monday when he said he heard a "loud bang" outside his shop and realised the driver of a Toyota LandCruiser had struck Haines, leaving her badly injured.

"It was crazy, I just ran out the front to see what was happening," he told reporters on Tuesday.

He said he ran to assist the well-respected local MP, grabbing a knife from the alleged attacker's pocket and pulling him out of the car.

"He did have a knife. He didn't pull it out. I just wasn't comfortable with his movements, and so I basically just took it out of his pocket and threw it away," he said.

Jefferies said he then held the man down until police arrived.

"I just leant over him and once he was on the ground and he was no longer a threat, I just stood with him and I told him that he can't leave," he said.

Haines, 65, was airlifted to hospital where she underwent surgery overnight. She remains in a critical condition.

Early investigations suggested the driver, identified as a 43-year-old man, performed a U-turn before hitting Haines as she was loading or unloading things from the trunk of her car, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said. Counterterrorism authorities are among the multiple agencies involved in the investigation.

While police have given no motive for the alleged attack, the involvement of counterterrorism investigators has raised alarm that it could have been an act of political violence, which is rare in Australia.

Jefferies, whose shop is next door to Haines' electorate office around three hours' drive northeast of Melbourne, described the former midwife as a "genuine, kind person".

Albanese praised Jefferies' intervention, calling him a hero.

"At this dark and terrible time, an element of light is the fact that a Good Samaritan, someone rushed to Helen's defence in Wangaratta, put themselves potentially at risk by doing so. And that person is a hero today," Albanese said in an interview with the Nine network's "Today" show.

Jefferies downplayed the praise.

"I don't think I'm a hero. I think that I just was a person who had an opportunity to intervene in a safe-ish sort of way," he said.

- Christine Chen in Sydney; Editing by Stephen Coates/Reuters