Algerian Asylum Seeker Holds Restaurant Owner’s Wife At Knifepoint Then Slashes Four Rescuers In Packed Sardinian Sushi Bar

A 29-year-old Algerian asylum seeker burst into a busy sushi restaurant in Olbia, Sardinia, held the owner’s wife at knifepoint and slashed four people who tried to save her, Italian police and local reports say.

The horror unfolded on Friday night at Ichi Asia Fusion on Corso Umberto, in the tourist town’s historic centre. The packed restaurant was serving late diners when the man walked straight to the till, grabbed Elena, wife of owner Simone Sun, and pressed a large knife to her throat.

‘He came up and grabbed me,’ Elena told L’Unione Sarda. ‘With one arm he held me, with the other he pointed the knife at my throat. He kept asking me to call the police. Then he started dragging me. He stumbled and I fell with him. Everyone came over — customers and colleagues — and started hitting him to make him drop the knife. Someone pulled me away. Then I saw four of the people who had intervened were wounded and bleeding, two customers and two staff.’

Video circulating online captures the chaos inside the wooden-panelled restaurant: diners and staff crowding the till as a woman screams, plates of salmon and avocado still sitting on the counter. The clip lasts barely 13 seconds but shows the scramble as people try to reach the pair before the attacker starts swinging the blade. Reports say he may have produced a second knife and struck people in the legs.

Four people were taken to Giovanni Paolo II hospital. Three suffered light wounds; one was hurt more seriously. None of the injuries were described as life-threatening. The attacker was overpowered by staff, customers, and arriving police and carabinieri. He was arrested and later taken for medical checks.

The suspect, already known to police for drug and property offences, is legally in Italy because he has an application for international protection. Restaurant owners said they had seen him hanging around the premises in the days before the attack but did not know him. Motive remains unclear; witnesses said he shouted disconnected phrases while holding Elena.

Owner Simone Sun later thanked the customers and staff who stepped in. ‘I have to thank our customers who, together with our boys in the dining room, isolated this delinquent who tried to harm those present,’ he said.

The case has quickly become a flashpoint in Italy’s bitter argument over asylum rules. The man had been granted the right to remain while his protection claim was processed, the same status that, critics say, allowed him to walk into a family restaurant on a Friday night with a knife. Prosecutors are still examining the exact charges, which so far include wounding, aggravated threats and carrying an offensive weapon.