Quote:HERO CABBIE: I KICKED BURNING TERRORIST SO HARD IN BALLS THAT I TORE A TENDON
HERO CABBIE..
By Karen Bale
A HERO cabbie who took on the Glasgow Airport terror suspects told yesterday how he booted one of them in the privates.

Alex McIlveen, 45, kicked the man, whose body was in flames, so hard that he tore a tendon in his foot.

But he said last night: "He didn't even flinch. I couldn't believe he didn't go down.

"A doctor told me later I'd damaged a tendon in my foot."

The burned suspect was named last night as Khalid Ahmed, a Lebanese doctor.

He is critically ill with burns at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley, where he is believed to have worked.

Quote:HERO CABBIE: POLICE TOOK MY GOOD NIKE TRAINERS
TERROR TARGET SCOTLAND EXCLUSIVE
By John Ferguson
BATTLING taxi driver Alex McIlveen faced down the Glasgow Airport terror suspects ... and his courage cost him his favourite pair of trainers and a £30 parking fine.

Dad-of-two Alex punched and kicked the two men after they crashed a Jeep Cherokee loaded with gas canisters into the door of Terminal One.

The 45-year-old booted one of the suspects, whose body was covered in flames, as hard as he could between the legs.

But the man didn't appear to feel the blow, and a police doctor told Alex later that he'd damaged a tendon in his foot.

After the drama, police confiscated Alex's trainers for forensic tests.

And when he went back to the airport to pick up his cab, he was stunned to find that he'd been given a parking ticket.


Alex said: "The police took all the clothes I 'd been wearing so I lost my Nike trainers. They're a good pair too.


"I didn't get out of the police station until late on Saturday night and I found the parking ticket on my cab next day. I couldn't believe it."


Alex, of Glasgow, was one of several hero Scots who took on the men who targeted the airport on Saturday afternoon.


He punched and kicked the passenger from the Jeep, believed to be Iraqi doctor Bilal Abdulla.


Then he went after the driver of the vehicle, even though the heavily-built man was in flames after apparently turning himself into a human torch.


Alex was dropping off a fare at the airport when the attack began.


He said: "I noticed a 4x4 sitting in the middle of the road. Then, as my passenger was paying and getting out, the Jeep rammed into the airport entrance right next to us.


"I couldn't believe what I was seeing.


"The guy in the passenger seat was wearing a white T-shirt. He got out carrying what looked like a petrol bomb and seconds later the Jeep was in flames.


"Then he kicked and punched a man to the ground before punching a policeman square in the face. That's when I saw red. That sort of thing just isn't on.


"I told my passenger to run for her life, then I went for the man in the T-shirt and managed to skelp him in the face. I followed it up by booting him twice.


"By that time some other people had joined in and it seemed like the T-shirt guy was trying to get back into the Jeep.


"Then the driver got out of the car. He was already in flames. It was obvious he was the real psycho of the pair.


"Someone was hosing him down but the flames seemed to jump up again just as it looked like they had gone out.


"It was obvious the driver wanted into the boot of the Jeep for something and I was worried about what it was. I thought it must be a gun.


"He was going crazy, just lashing out at everyone and babbling p*sh in a foreign language the whole time.


"I've heard people say since that he was shouting 'Allah!' but I didn't hear that. It just sounded like a lot of c**p to me.


"I ran for the guy and punched him twice in the face with pretty good right hooks.


"Then I kicked him with full force right in the balls but he didn't go down. He just kept on babbling his rubbish.


"I couldn't believe that he was still standing. I know I would have been floored by that kind of kick."


Alex continued to take on the man, who was lashing out with his fists. He recalled: "He was a big guy and I'm not really a fighter, but his punches were wild and I managed to dodge them and make some good strikes myself.


"Luckily, more people joined in and we managed to beat the guy down. The police apparently caught the other man.


"I don't think the policeman I saw at the scene drew his baton during the whole thing. He should have given it to me - I'd have leathered those guys with it."


Alex added: "After the two guys were restrained, my memory gets a bit blurred. I think I got hit with some of the CS spray the police were firing at them.


"The next thing I knew I was waiting in a room at the airport for an ambulance with another member of the public. He'd been badly beaten by the guy in the T-shirt and he had a broken leg.


"But the paramedics still treated the burned guy first. He was being held by police in the next room ."


Alex spent hours at a Paisley police station telling detectives everything he could remember about the fight.


He said: "It was only after getting there that I really began to think about what had happened. I started shaking like a leaf.


"A police doctor looked me over and said I had damaged a tendon in my foot as a result of the kick I gave the second guy.


"I've got a few pains in my back as well but apart from that I'm unscathed.


"I didn't get out of the police station until late on Saturday night.


"An officer eventually took me home but the police insisted on taking away all the clothes I had been wearing."


Next day, Alex returned to the airport to pick up his red Skoda Octavia.


He said: "I couldn't believe it when I discovered a £30 parking ticket on my cab. Considering I got it while trying to save hundreds of people, I would hope it will be cancelled."


Alex's wife Lynn, 40, said: "He risked his life because he thought people were in danger. He is an absolute hero.


"If he hadn't been there, who knows what would have happened."


Lynn, a catering assistant, added: "The first I knew about what had happened was when I phoned Alex to find out why he was late to pick me up.


"I'd been shopping and he was supposed to meet me, but when I called his mobile he said he was at the police station."