Like the climax of a kung-fu movie, the hero in this grim scenario came out of nowhere to save the day.
According to ChinaSmack, a man wielding a large, machete-like knife rushed the campus of China's Guizhou Normal University on July 2, allegedly headed toward the cafeteria. Several security guards tried to stop him, but were cut down in the process. The man, described by police as mentally ill, stabbed and killed two guards with a 27-inch steel blade and seriously injured a third.
In footage captured by a bystander's camera phone, the suspect can be seen attacking and stabbing a guard. As he turns away from his victim, a man dashes onto the scene and delivers a powerful flying kick to the suspect's back, knocking him over.
The video has been viewed more than 2.7 million times after it was posted to the Chinese video-sharing site Youku.
The man who delivered the kick, whose name reportedly is Zhang Huaiqian, has been nicknamed "Flying Kick Brother" by social media users and the Chinese press. Zhang can be seen in the car's side view mirror, waiting for the right moment to act.
"He wanted to beat me but he had to pick up his knife first. I felt that he was hesitating and I gave him a second kick," Zhang told China Daily.
A gang of security personnel and bystanders mobbed the suspect after he was taken down. The group then proceeded to punch, kick and beat him into submission with various objects before he was later arrested.
The security guard stabbed by the knife-wielding man can be seen in the video clutching his wound as the commotion subsides. Another person, who appears to be a guard, is seen lying motionless on the sidewalk late in the video.
China Central Television reports that two university guards, Ni Bing, 48, and Han Yimin, 49, died from their injuries at a local hospital.