Teenage Boy Scout a Hero in the Maldives

"He pushed me, and I pushed him back," said Ibrahim, sprawled out on a bed in a small hospital room crowded with his six brothers and sisters, his parents, a few cousins and a handful of well-wishers.

"Then I saw him take out the knife. It was wrapped in a flag, a Maldives flag. He took it, he unwrapped it, and started to move for my president. I tried to grab it," Ibrahim said.

The knife sliced open his hand "blood was shooting out!" but Ibrahim said he was never scared.

"This is what I wanted to do when I became a policeman," he said of his lifelong ambition. "I now know that I can do it if I have to act again. I won't be afraid."

The brave talk is being lapped up in Male, a cramped but laid-back city of modest, pastel-colored apartment blocks think Robinson Crusoe meets South Florida.

"Every person in the world knows about our Boy Scout," gushed Rilwan Tholal, a 36-year-old shop owner. "We are all talking about him."

But with word spreading that the alleged attacker, 20-year-old Mohamed Murshid, may have been an Islamic extremist, the attack also has threatened the Maldives' reputation.

In September, a bomb blamed on Islamic militants exploded in a park in Male, wounding 12 tourists.

A week later, police and soldiers raided an island that was a reputed insurgent stronghold, sparking a battle with masked men armed with clubs and fishing spears that wounded more than 30 security officers.

And then there was Tuesday's attack. Murshid was nabbed by police at the scene, the knife in his hand. He repeatedly shouted "God is Great" as he was hauled away.