- Nicklas Bendtner avoided being seriously injured when his group was attacked
- One person has now been arrested and charged with attempted murder
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Former Arsenal star Nicklas Bendtner avoided being stabbed in a horrific incident after a knife-wielding person attacked the group he was with during a visit to New York.
The Dane – who has scored 47 goals in 171 appearances for the Gunners – left for the United States last week for a tour of the Big Apple when what was meant to be a casual stroll through the streets turned into a moment of true terror.
CCTV footage shows Bendtner and his entourage walking through the opulent surroundings of Manhattan’s Upper West Side last Wednesday, just seconds before a knifeman approached them.
The next frame then shows a bearded man, wearing shorts and a T-shirt, sprinting towards the visitors with a knife in his left hand.
He is then seen fleeing the scene, while Bendtner later reveals that another member of the group – who is also a former professional footballer – was stabbed and then rushed to hospital.
The 55-year-old stabbing victim was treated for facial and ear injuries at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York, with the knifeman later arrested and charged with attempted murder and assault.
Former Arsenal star Nicklas Bendtner (left) avoided being stabbed in a horrific incident after a knife-wielding person attacked the group he was with in New York
Bendtner scored 47 goals in 171 appearances for the Gunners during his time at the club
A knifeman can be seen walking towards the group Bendtner was with with a knife in hand
Bendtner later confirmed it was him in the footage of the Manhattan attack
Bendtner later confirmed his presence after being captured on camera, telling Danish publication Ekstra Bladet: “Yes, I can confirm it’s me in the video.
‘Could it have been me who was attacked? I have no comment on that.
“But I can confirm it’s me in the video; it’s hard to run away from it. The victim, a former professional footballer, was walking with friends.”
The attacker was later confirmed by police as local New Yorker Joshua Zinberg, claiming the 25-year-old suffers from mental health issues and has a lengthy criminal record.
Zinberg’s mother reportedly identified her son as the attacker after spotting him during television coverage of the incident amid calls to find the attacker.
New York City Mayor Eric Adams later deflected some of the blame for the city’s closure of mental health facilities, saying, “We walk past people every day who we know are unable to properly decision to care for them. himself.
“This is a problem that arose when we closed the mental institutions years ago.
“We closed them without giving people the support they deserve.”