Trolley man: funds pour in for homeless Melbourne hero

A fundraising campaign raised almost AUD 100,000 (£ 55,000, US $ 72,000) to help a homeless man who tried to stop an attacker brandishing a knife in Melbourne by hitting him with a shopping cart.

Michael Rogers, nicknamed "Trolley Man" online, was filmed Friday to prevent Hassan Khalif Shire Ali from stabbing two policemen.

The suspect had already killed a coffee owner and injured two others.

He was later shot dead by the police and died at the hospital.

After being found by reporters, Mr. Rogers, 46, told 7 News: "I threw the cart directly at him and I got it." I did not quite down, though. "

At that time, he was just meters away from a burning car filled with gas cylinders that the attacker had set on fire near Bourke Street, a busy downtown street.

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Images of Rogers' efforts are spreading rapidly online, where he is hailed as a hero.

A GoFundMe fundraising page was created by Donna Stolzenberg, founder of the Melbourne Homeless Collective, to help her get back on her feet.

"As a person, he deserves it," she told Reuters.

At the time of writing, 3,388 people had made donations and the page had been shared 11,000 times on Facebook.

A message from its creator said, "UPDATE: We found it, what an absolutely incredible human, we had a long conversation on the phone today and we are even more proud of him." Our hero is as humble as he can no idea about this fundraiser, we'll catch up tomorrow to donate, and it's amazing. "

The charity of Mrs. Stolzenberg will now help Mr. Rogers find housing, as well as psychological support to deal with what he has seen.

Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton said Friday's attack was treated as a terrorist incident.

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