By Isabella Ross and Shannon Corvo for ABC News
Ahmed Al Ahmed speaks to CBS News in the US. Photo: Screenshot / CBS News
The man deemed a "hero" after risking his life to save "countless others" during the Bondi Beach terrorist attack has spoken of his determination to protect the innocent.
Ahmed Al Ahmed went viral after footage showed him sneaking up behind one of the two gunmen and wrestling a long-barrelled gun away from him.
In an interview with CBS News in the US on Monday, Al Ahmed reflected on the ordeal, in which he suffered multiple gunshots.
"I jumped onto his back and hit him… 'Drop your gun, stop doing what you're doing,'" he recalled saying to the gunman he disarmed.
"No, I didn't worry about anything… my target was just to take the gun from him and to stop him from killing a human being.
"I feel something, a power in my body, my brain. I don't want to see people killed in front of me, I don't want to see blood, I don't want to hear his gun, I don't want to see people screaming.
"My soul asked me to do that," he said of his decision to intervene.
Fifteen people were killed during the 14 December shooting that targeted Jewish people at a Hanukkah celebration called Chanukah by the Sea at Archer Park.
The 43-year-old father-of-two's selfless actions are thought to have saved "countless lives".
"I know I saved lots of people … innocent kids, and women … I know I saved lots, but I feel sorry still for the lost," Al Ahmed said.
'Real-life hero' on the road to recovery
For the past fortnight, Al Ahmed underwent surgeries at St George Hospital.
South Eastern Sydney Local Health District confirmed Al Ahmed was released from hospital on Sunday.
Al Ahmed's parents previously told the ABC he was shot four to five times in his shoulder.
"He saw they were dying, and people were losing their lives, and when that guy [the shooter] ran out of ammo, he took it from him, but he was hit," Al Ahmed's mother said.
"When he did what he did, he wasn't thinking about the background of the people he's saving, the people dying in the street," Al Ahmed's father said.
New South Wales Premier Chris Minns talks with Ahmed Al Ahmed, the man who tackled and disarmed one of the Bondi Beach attackers, at St George Hospital in Sydney. Photo: AFP / NSW Premier's Department
Relatives and locals back in his small Syrian hometown of Al Nayrab, which Al Ahmed left in the mid-2000s to start a new life in Australia, have also expressed their pride.
"Ahmed is a brave and honourable young man. He cannot tolerate injustice or corruption. He rejects wrongdoing and meanness," his uncle Wahid Al Ahmed previously told the ABC.
More than 43,000 people around the world donated more than A$2.5 million to a fundraising campaign set up to thank him for his actions.
The day after the attack, NSW Premier Chris Minns paid Al Ahmed a visit.
He posted a photo on social media and called him a "real-life hero".
"His incredible bravery no doubt saved countless lives when he disarmed a terrorist at enormous personal risk," Minns said.
The following day, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese also visited Al Ahmed.
"He decided to take action and his bravery is an inspiration for all Australians," Albanese said to journalists after he left the hospital.
- ABC
