A man nearly had his left arm chopped off when he was attacked from behind while having a meal at the Kingsley Food Bar in Honiara, last Saturday.
The incident brought chaos and horror inside the eating establishment just before lunch hour as other diners escaped for their lives.
Eye-witnesses told the Sunday Star three young men were seen observing the victim around the food bar before one of them went in with his machete and hacked him on his left arm.
“The attacker then wiped his knife and told the victim ‘this was for my brother’ before leaving the food bar,” one eye-witness said.
He said the victim, who was from Rennell, yelled out for people to seize his attacker, before he fell to the ground unconscious.
The victim was quickly rushed to the hospital, and his left arm, which was only held together by the skin, was saved.
“It was a very horrific scene. Blood was everywhere on the floor and the food bar workers all run away outside.
“A lot of people who witnessed the incident were traumatised,” the eye-witness said.
One of the traumatised eye-witnesses was a Solomon Star street seller, who was selling the paper outside the Kingsley building when the incident happened.
He was so affected that he had to stop his sale and return to the office.
Police confirmed that three unidentified suspects came in a blue car with plate number A4816 to execute their plan before escaping to west Honiara.
“Investigation is already underway,” a police spokesman said yesterday.
“We have witnesses coming forward to give their accounts of the incident,” the officer said.
He said they are yet to establish the motive for the attack, but commentators on social media claimed the attack was in relation to a disputed logging operation on Rennell island.
The victim was said to be a young chief on the island who had just flew into Honiara.
But the attacker and his cohorts were said to be Malaitans.
A spokesman at the National Referral Hospital’s emergency unit said the victim has been treated and recovering well.
“But we will have to refer him to the bone clinic for specialist treatment,” the spokesman said.
BY EDDIE OSIFELO
