Add CategorySHERLOCK star Benedict Cumberbatch fought off a gang of four muggers as they beat up a defenceless Deliveroo cyclist.
The actor, 41, leapt from an Uber car and waded in after spotting the attack near detective Sherlock Holmes’ fictional home in London’s Baker Street, The Sun reports.
The gang fled. Uber driver Manuel Dias said: “The cyclist was lucky, Benedict’s a superhero.”
The star leapt to the rescue as the thugs punched the defenceless cyclist and smashed him over the head with a bottle.
Witnesses told how Benedict, 41, jumped from an Uber car in which he was riding with wife Sophie Hunter and sprinted into the fray, yelling: “Leave him alone.”
He dragged the four muggers off their bloodied victim. They then tried to punch Benedict, but he fended them off before they fled.
The drama took place near 221B Baker Street, fictional London home of author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s hero detective Sherlock Holmes — star of crime books including The Hound of the Baskervilles.
Driver Manuel Dias, 53, said: “I was taking Benedict and his wife to a club — but I didn’t know it was him at first.
“I went to turn down into Marylebone High Street and we saw four guys were pushing around a Deliveroo cyclist.
“My passenger jumped out, ran over and pulled the men away. They turned towards him and things looked like getting worse, so I joined in.
“He stood there instructing them in the street, shouting, ‘Leave him alone’.
“It was only then I recognised Benedict. Then it all got a bit surreal. Here was Sherlock Holmes fighting off four attackers just round the corner from Baker Street.
“I had hold of one lad and Benedict another. He seemed to know exactly what he was doing. He was very brave. He did most of it, to be honest.
“They tried to hit him but he defended himself and pushed them away. He wasn’t injured. Then I think they also recognised it was Benedict and ran away.
The four attackers were still on the run. Cops confirmed they were called to an assault on a delivery rider.
Modest Benedict insisted he was not a hero.
He said: “I did it out of, well, I had to, you know …”
This story originally appeared in the The Sun and has been reproduced with permission.