A 15-year-old Boy Scout intervened to stop a man from stabbing Maldives President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom with a kitchen knife on Tuesday, a move the leader's spokesman said saved him from assassination.Gayoom, who was unharmed in the incident, paid tribute to teenager Mohamed Jaisham, who was wearing the characteristic green Scout uniform with scarf and woggle at the time and foiled the attack by wrestling with the man and grabbing the blade.
The boy's hand was badly wounded.
"I have been saved thanks to Mohamed Jaisham and Allah," Gayoom said in a national radio address after the incident.
In a twist of fate, Gayoom holds the honorary title of "Chief Scout of the Maldives".
The attack took place on the island of Hoarafushi, which with 3,000 residents is one of the most populated in the northern Maldives, as Gayoom met supporters after the inauguration of a renewable energy project.
"He was shaking hands with supporters, when a young man came and tried to stab him with a large kitchen knife," Presidential spokesman Mohamed Shareef told Reuters by telephone from the president's yacht.
"He was saved by a boy who moved in the way and tried to grab the knife and suffered a serious injury to his hand," he added. "The President was not hurt, but the knife did catch his shirt. It was definitely an assassination attempt on his life."