A HELENSBURGH gran who tackled a thug threatening to stab a bar owner has laughed off suggestions that she’s a “have-a-go hero”.

Liz Trueman was punched and knocked out after she intervened when a mob burst into the bar on the Costa del Sol and threatened owner Paolo Mortoni.

But Liz, 77, who was visiting Bar Mortoni in Fuengirola while on holiday, said Spanish police had shown little interest in her condition after the terrifying incident.

She said: “Everything happened so quickly. These men just came in and Paolo went to speak to them, and suddenly all hell broke loose.

“I just thought ‘I need to get out’. But as I was walking out the door I saw one of the men break a glass. He had Paolo pinned down over a chair and looked like he was going to stab him with a shard of glass.

“I just jumped in and stopped him. He punched me in the face and knocked me to the ground.”

Liz, who lives in Kirkmichael, was left with bruising on her hip and arm as a result of the incident.

An ambulance was called, but never showed up – while a police officer merely asked Liz if she was all right and then left.

But after spending two days recuperating at her daughter Jacqueline’s home nearby, Liz was soon back out and about – and even returned to the bar where the incident happened.

“I’m not a hero at all,” she told the Advertiser. “It was only two days later that I found out the whole story and thought to myself ‘for heaven’s sake, what did I do?’

“It was just a spur-of-the-moment thing. Paolo is about my height, small and skinny, and these thugs – Moroccans, I learned later – were all big guys.

“I was back there a few days later. I wouldn’t normally go to a pub on my own at home, but my daughter, Jacqueline, and her husband Paul are friendly with Paolo and his wife Hayley, and I was there looking after Jacqueline and Paul’s home while they were back at home.

“Paul and Hayley are a nice couple – they’ve recently set up the bar and they’re just finding their feet. But there’s no way I’m a have-a-go hero.”

According to media reports in Spain, Spanish police stated they could not take the matter further as no official denuncia, or complaint, was made about the incident.

Liz’s daughter, Jackie Quick, said: “The police went to the pub but they didn’t even make a record of what happened.

“For an officer to just look at my mum, say ‘are you OK?’ and then walk away, when she had been knocked out and was quite visibly shaken, is worrying.

“I couldn’t imagine that happening anywhere else in Europe.

“But to go in there with all fists flailing to stop Paolo getting stabbed, especially when she could have ended up being stabbed herself, was a terribly brave thing.”

Jackie joked: “I have warned her if she ever does anything like that again, she will be grounded, her pocket money docked, and we will take away her whisky.

“Her response? ‘Well, I will just hire myself out as a bodyguard – I have cracking references’.”