Quote:Student comes to his senseis in the school of hard knocks NICK RALSTON AND GEESCHE JACOBSEN
May 21, 2010

Three muggers got a surprise when five Ninjas raced to the rescue of a student they attacked in an alley in Sydney's south-west.

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HE HAS spent nine weeks in Australia but the one experience Michael Zinke expects to be asked about on his return to Germany is the time he was saved by five ninjas on the backstreets of western Sydney.

Bruised, battered and still a bit shaken, the medical student yesterday said he was trying to make sense of the events that played out in an dark alley in Kingswood on Tuesday night.

''There was the policemen and there was the ninjas,'' he said. ''It was not something that I would expect in Kingswood.''

The 27-year-old was walking home from the local railway station when three men who had been harassing him on the train knocked him to the ground and stole his mobile phone and iPod. They then started kicking him. The attack stopped abruptly when five ninjas, training at the dojo across the road, became aware of what was happening and ran out to help.

''I was on the ground and these guys were kicking me, then I just saw them running,'' Mr Zinke said. ''I was thinking, 'Why have they stopped kicking at me?' Then I turned around and I saw the ninjas. Who knows what would have happened if they were not there.''

Mr Zinke yesterday stopped by the dojo to thank the men who had come to his aid. In return the ninjas passed on a few basic moves for the medical student to take home.

Police last night also praised the intervention of the ninjas, who might have prevented a more serious attack.

Police have arrested and charged a 20-year-old and a 16- year-old over the robbery. Police are still looking for a boy aged between 15 and 17 years of Caucasian appearance and about 165 centimetres tall. He was wearing a dark hooded top, dark pants and white shoes.

The 20-year-old was arrested on Wednesday while he was at court on another charge and was strip-searched in public, his sister said.

He was refused bail yesterday after the the court heard he had failed to appear at court on previous occasions.

The 16-year-old was also refused bail. Both face charges of robbery in company while inflicting actual bodily harm.

They were arrested and charged after security camera footage from the railway station was viewed by police.