Hawzah News Agency - On Monday evening, 23-year-old Osama Joda and his colleague left Schwedenplatz, a central Vienna square, and headed towards McDonald’s, where they worked.

It was unusually warm in the Austrian capital on the eve of a second lockdown, and it was busy.

People met in bars and restaurants before the new social distancing measures came into effect.

Suddenly, Joda heard gunshots.

“The terrorist was 20 meters away from me,” Joda said on a video call, visibly upset.

When two policemen came to his aid, the attacker opened fire on them and struck an officer.

Joda, who is of Palestinian background, and his colleague ducked behind a tree, then behind a concrete bench.

“We pulled the injured officer aside. I immediately looked for the wound and tried to stop the bleeding with my hand. That did not help. So, I took off my jumper and tried to stop the bleeding with that instead. After 15 minutes the ambulance came.

“The assassin was still nearby. I went to the ambulance, but they were all in shock, they couldn’t move. I went back to the policeman. I was in shock myself and don’t remember who was standing next to me. But all of a sudden two young men came and helped to bring the wounded to safety.”

The two young men were Mikail Özen, 25, and Recep Gültekin, 21, two Viennese mixed martial arts (MMA) fighters with Turkish family background.