A Dundee teenager used martial arts to fight off a knife-wielding thug.

 

The 16-year-old boy threw a taekwondo move after being confronted with a four-inch blade.

Today, the Gowrie Park youngster spoke about how he “could have been killed” in the “horrifying” incident.

The incident happened on the football pitch in Menzieshill, behind the Lynch Sports centre.

The boy said: “I walked my girlfriend home to her house from mine and we left at about 9.30pm.

“On the way home I was crossing the football pitch and I heard someone approaching me from behind.

“I turned to look at him and the first thing that caught my eye was his clothes — he was completely covered and was wearing a scarf and a tight hood.”

The teenager said he changed course to work out if he was being followed, and realised that he was. He said: “As he got closer to me, he pulled out a knife. It was a flip-up knife and the blade itself was about four inches.

“I had no question in my mind that he was going to stab me and he lunged at me with the knife.

“He was going for about my chest or abdomen and he was ready to use the knife. But I have been to a taekwondo class for five or six years and I am about half way to becoming a black belt. I knocked the knife away with my arm and then I punched him in the face.”

He continued: “If I’d had my earphones I wouldn’t have heard him coming up behind me and he could have stabbed me. I could have been killed.

“I was shouting at him to make him go away and eventually he said ‘I’m sorry about that mate’ and then ran off.”

He said that his quick thinking saved his life, and now police are hunting the culprit. The teenager added: “When I was in bed I just kept thinking that my life wasn’t worth anything to him and I could have died.

“I really think the training is what saved me. It is horrifying that someone came at me with a weapon out of the blue on a route that I take every day, and he was ready to use it.

“If I hadn’t reacted so quickly he could have stabbed me and maybe even killed me.”

A police spokesman said the attacker was described as between 16 and 20 years old, and about 5ft 10in. He was wearing a black waterproof jacket with the cord drawn tight around his head, dark trousers and “scruffy” white trainers.

The spokesman added the assailant ran off across the pitches past the tennis courts in the direction of Spey Drive or Leith Walk towards Menzieshill.

Officers will be carrying out extra patrols in the area.