Lars Reuterberg was on his way to a seminar on Wednesday afternoon in Visby. He had injured his leg and linked a bit when he went down Donners alley very close to the Almedalen stage.
Then he suddenly heard someone shout: “Stop him!”
He saw a man running up the hill towards him – and immediately thought it was a bag wrecker.
– These are fast pucks, so I thought that a tackle could cost me to stop him. He went in the door and fell, says Lars Reuterberg.
A few hours have passed after the knife attack that left a woman seriously injured, in the middle of Almedalen at Donner’s place, when DN meets Lars Reuterberg. The large roadblocks are still in place – but the many police officers and the media who were on site shortly after the knife cutting have eased. Now people stroll past in the evening sun – even if the mood is low after the event.
It was only when the running man fell to the ground that Lars Reuterberg saw that he had a knife.
– My first thought was that it was lucky that I did not see it because then I do not know how I had reacted. But then I saw that there was blood on the knife.
He says that the man remained on the ground until the police arrived. He was then taken away and shortly afterwards the knife-cut woman could be taken away by ambulance to Visby hospital. On Wednesday afternoon, police said she was seriously injured.
Lars Reuterberg became himself interrogated for a long time by the police. But he seems calm and has had time to go to another seminar since the incident.
But he is not really calm, he says:
– I’m pissed.
For many years he has gone to Almedalen as a private person: attended seminars, talked to people – and above all listened to politicians’ speeches.
– That is what the folk festival itself is. I do not share all opinions but think it is fun to listen. So this pisses me off.
For Almedalen is important. And it should not be able to destroy a “wit with a knife”, he says.
– I feel really bad about this woman. But also that she was in Almedalen and happened upon this makes me upset. That someone destroys Almedalen makes me angry.
Why is Almedalen so important to you?
– It is important for all of us. There is no equivalent in the world where you can go forward and talk to politicians you like or dislike and talk, and they give you a few seconds. It is fantastic. Because they are people anyway, even if they have tough jobs.
Now he feels proud that he intervened – and the man.
– I’m a little proud and happy that the reptile brain struck and something was done. Who wants a witch with a knife in Almedalen, says Lars Reuterberg.