Nick Ut, photojournalist who made the famous Vietnam War ‘napalm girl’ image, attacked in Washington



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Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist who shot the famous Vietnam War napalm girl photo has been attacked in Washington, DC

Photographer Nick Ut was on his way to dinner Thursday night with a friend when someone came up to him and punched him, NBC Washington reports.

“What happened last night, we had problems,” he says. “I really don’t see this guy attacking me last night, and I hear screaming, but too late for me, and he already hit me.”

Ut, 70, born in Vietnam, said he fell to the ground and hit a metal fence surrounding a tree.

Kim Phuc, 9, center, runs near Trang Bang, Vietnam, after a napalm airstrike on June 8, 1972.Nick Ut / AP File

He detailed the attack in an Instagram post.

“He knocked me over and injured my ribs, back and left leg. Same leg, I have metal in mortar during the Vietnam War, ”Ut wrote. “The Secret Service is so quick to come and help.”

Mark Edward Harris, another award-winning photographer and longtime friend of Ut, told NBC Washington that he took a photo of Ut after the attack. He said the suspect was arrested by police.

The day before the attack, Ut had received the National Medal of the Arts from President Donald Trump. The Secret Service did not immediately return a request for comment on Saturday and it is not clear whether Ut was targeted or whether the attack was random.

Ut gained fame for a 1972 photograph he took during the Vietnam War of 9-year-old Kim Phuc running down a street following a napalm attack.

After taking the photo, he drove the girl to the hospital, where doctors were able to save her, according to the Associated Press.

Ut, who worked for the AP until his retirement from the outlet in 2017, won numerous awards, including the Pulitzer Prize in 1973. He is the first journalist to receive the National Medal of Arts, the highest distinction awarded by the federal government.

Ut told NBC Washington that he plans to stay in DC during the inauguration to take photos.



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