Australians praise mystery hero 'trolley-man' who helped thwart terror attack

The man who pushed a shopping trolley into the Melbourne knife attacker is being hailed a hero and people are keen to find out just who he is.

Mohamed Khalif went on a bloody rampage on Friday, crashing his Holden Rodeo on Bourke Street before setting it on fire.

He then took out a knife and attacked innocent bystanders before being shot by police and dying later in hospital.

One of his victims also died and two more are in hospital.

The attack is being treated by police as a terror attack and Islamic State has claimed Khalif was one of their fighters.

During the attack a quick thinking bystander grabbed a shopping trolley and pushed it in to Khalif as he attacked police, slowing him down.

The man, dubbed trolley-man on social media, fell to the ground as Khalif tunred his anger on him. He then gets up and once again shoves the trolley towards Khalif.

Melbourne Police said they had spoken to trolley-man, but didn’t confirm his identity.  

Police Commissioner Graham Ashton praised the actions of the man, but warned the public to let the police do their job.

"Look, you just have to be a bit careful about — in that situation how close you do get — because he could have been injured himself," Mr Ashton told Weekend Today.

"But certainly he was acting in the spur of the moment and looking to support the police.

"There was a number of people that did that and we are always grateful when the community are supporting our police members.

"Again, we just to be careful in the way that we do that."

Australian media and social media praised the new hero, with one tweet saying,  “I feel safe in my city knowing that somewhere out there - Trolley Man is watching over us. "

Newshub.