In a rescue worthy of the Mutant Ninja Turtles, five Sydney ninjas went to the aid of a commuter as he was being robbed of his mobile phone in a Sydney alleyway.
The 27-year-old German medical student had been confronted by three thugs as he sat alone on a late-night train to Kingswood, in Sydney's western suburbs on Wednesday night.
He refused to hand over his wallet when they demanded it, but they followed him off the train and saw their chance when he turned into the dimly lit alley.
But their assault was brought to a sudden stop when they looked up from kicking their victim and saw the ninjas, dressed completely in black, running toward them.
If they had looked a bit more carefully as they trailed the student into the alley, they might have noticed that the spot where they had chosen to launch their attack was right outside the doors of the Ninja Senshi Ryu school, a Japanese martial arts school that trains would be ninja warriors.
Even worse for the hapless muggers, a class happened to be in progress at the time. It was being taught by a sensei, or teacher, of 30 years experience in the specialised warrior art of Ninjutsu, an ancient martial art focusing on stealth, pressure points and weaponry.
The class was coming to an end when a ninjitsu student went outside and saw the attack on the student, who was coming to the end of an eight week exchange visit. Rushing back to class, he called on black belt instructor Kaylan Soto and three other students for help.
"He's called out to me, 'Sensei, someone's getting mugged on the road outside!'" said Mr Soto ."We looked around to see what was happening and there were three blokes on this guy just kicking him and punching him in the head.
"We started running at them, yelling and everything. These guys have turned around and seen five ninjas in black ninja uniforms running towards them. They just bolted," he said.
"You should have seen their faces when they saw us in ninja gear coming towards them. I've never seen guys running that fast. They should have been in the Olympics - they would have won gold," he added.
Ninja student Steve Ashley said: "It was probably the worst place in Sydney where they could have taken him."
The muggers got away with the student's mobile phone and iPod. Sydney police said they have charged a 16-year-old boy and a 20-year-old man with robbery. The third attacker is still on the run.
It would have made the ninja turtles very proud. As they would say, Cowabunga.
Source http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/article7131610.ece
