ONE YEAR ON: Tribute to London Bridge ‘Skateboard Hero’ killed in terror attack

THE father of Ignacio Echeverria, the ‘skateboard hero’ stabbed to death by terrorists during the London bridge attacks last year, has paid tribute to his son a year on.

“He did what he had to do. I wouldn’t expect less from him,” Joaquin Echeverria, Ignacio’s father, said.

“I want it to be known that he always wanted to be good,” he added.

The terrorists were stabbing a woman when Echeverria, from Madrid, intervened armed with just his skateboard.

“And the next thing Ignacio was then being struck by the three terrorists,” Echeverria’s father said.”

The Spaniard – who was an anti-money laundering expert at HSBC bank – had said he would intervene in the event of a terrorist attack during a family conversation just a few months prior to the June 3 attacks, his father told.

The Spanish government posthumously awarded him the Great Cross of the order of Civil Merit for “extraordinary services.”

Spain’s king Felipe VI also honoured his bravery in a speech given in UK parliament during a state visit last year.

A commemoration to those who died during the attacks was held at Southward Needle on London Bridge last Sunday marking one year since the attack.

Prime Minister Teresa May attended alongside Labour party leader, Jeremy Corbyn, London Metropolitan police chief, Cressida Dick and Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan.

“The many stories of courage demonstrated that night will always stay with me, such as Ignacio Echeverria, who died after confronting the terrorists with the only thing he had, his skateboard,” the Prime Minister said.

Islamic State-inspired terrorists ploughed down pedestrians on London bridge in a van before crashing it on the south bank of the River Thames.

They ran to nearby Borough market storming pubs and restaurants and stabbing whoever they could find before Metropolitan police shot them dead.

A total of 48 people were injured in the attacks and eight people were killed which in addition to Echeverria include, Canadian Christine Archibald, 30, James McMullan, 32, from Hackney, Frenchmen Alexandre Pigeard, 26, Sebastien Belanger, 36 and Xavier Thomas, 45, Australians Kirsty Boden, 28 and Sara Zelenak 21.