Almost four weeks after he became one of far-right killer Anton Lundin Pettersson's victims, the wife of a 42-year-old mathematics teacher said her husband had regained consciousness and was able to communicate.
“He was able to say a few words when he woke up. I asked him to say my name and he did,” Kronan teacher Nazir's wife, named only as Samira, told the Aftonbladet tabloid on Wednesday.
Nazir was stabbed when he confronted Lundin Pettersson when he entered the school armed with a knife and a sword on October 22nd.
“It hit him in the bile duct, just a millimetre from the liver. That saved his life,” said Samira.
Police have still not been able to question Nazir, who remains in a serious but stable condition, but he was moved from intensive care to a recovery department on Tuesday.
Nazir, 42, höggs ner när han försökte stoppa svärdmannen i Trollhättan – nu har han vaknat. https://t.co/NLmxxp2pkH pic.twitter.com/4cZnALwDK2
— Aftonbladet (@Aftonbladet) November 18, 2015
The brave maths teacher has received flowers and get-well messages from pupils.
“Yes, he is very popular. I tell him every time somebody gets in touch,” said Samira.
Thousands came to last month's funerals for teaching assistant Lavin Eskandar, 20, and Ahmed Hassan, 15, who were killed in Sweden's first school attack since the 1960s. But another pupil who was also hurt was able to return home from hospital earlier this month.
Police classified the attack as a hate crime after CCTV footage showed that Lundin Pettersson, a 21-year-old with far-right anti-immigrant sympathies who was shot by officers arriving at the scene, had selected his victims on the basis of their skin colour.