A German exchange student was reportedly rescued from a violent assault in western Sydney after a group of men dressed as ninjas confronted his attackers.
Two teens and a 20-year-old allegedly initially approached the 27-year-old medical student while he was on a train on Tuesday night and demanded he hand over his wallet.
When the student refused and got off the train the three allegedly followed him.
But the trio allegedly chose to launch their assault on the man in the most inopportune spot — outside the Ninja Senshi Ryu martial arts school in Penrith at around 10:10pm.
As they allegedly grabbed the student's iPod and phone and kicked him to the ground, one of the ninjas raised the alarm with his teacher Kaylan Soto and fellow ninjas, all of whom came rushing out to help.
"The first thing we saw was three guys on top of him, so we ran towards them," Mr Soto told ninemsn.
"The look on their faces — they would have seen five guys in ninja costumes running towards them.
"It was like one of those cartoons where the skeletons jump out of the body."
Mr Soto said the three attackers took off at "a million miles an hour" after seeing five men in ninja outfits running towards them.
"We didn't really do much at all but the fact that we just turned up, they saw five guys in ninja uniforms and they scattered," he said.
"If it was any earlier we might not have known about it but it was just lucky one of our guys was leaving at that particular time."
The German student was left with minor injuries but Mr Soto said he had been left shaken by the attack.
"Unfortunately it's one of those scenarios where he's just been here eight weeks, and he's flying back to his country on Saturday," Mr Soto said.
A 16-year-old boy and a 20-year-old man were arrested yesterday and charged with robbery in company.
Police are still searching for a male described as being between 15 and 17 of Caucasian appearance.
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