Among the stories of heroism that emerged from Monday night’s bombing outside an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester, England, was of a homeless man who rushed to the aid of victims.
‘We had to pull nails out of children’s faces’: Steve, a homeless man who was sleeping near #Manchester Arena, rushed to help young victims pic.twitter.com/dyxzZpal0Q
— ITV News (@itvnews) May 23, 2017
“We were having to pull nails out of their arms and stuff and a couple out of this little girl’s face,” the man, who goes by Steve, told ITV News. “Some lady, she got cut from her side here, so my mate had to hold her legs up and then an ambulance guy came and a fireman and they assisted after that. We just held her legs up because we thought she was just going to bleed right out.”
Explaining why he decided to help the victims, many of them young members of Grande’s fan base, Steve said that he wouldn’t have been able to live with himself if he hadn’t.
“They needed the help, I’d like to think that someone would come and help me if I needed the help,” he said. “It’s just instinct to go and help, if someone needed your help and it was children, it was a lot of children with blood all over them and crying and screaming.”
“Just because I’m homeless, it doesn’t mean I haven’t got a heart and I’m not still human,” he told ITV.
An ITV tweet of the interview garnered more than 45,000 retweets and more than a thousand replies, many of which applauded Steve for his actions.
Good man.
— John Challis (@BeingBoycie) May 23, 2017
it’s often the people with the least that tend to offer the most. I hope this man receives the help and support that he deserves.
— Dharma Bhagalia (@Kloppholic) May 23, 2017
Salute to you sir
— Captain Roscoe❤ (@ThePrototypesUK) May 23, 2017
At least one person set up a crowdfunding page to help him find a place to live. As of Wednesday morning, more than 1,600 people had donated more than £22,000.
