FLORENCE / ITALY: How one Bangladeshi flower seller rescued woman from 25 drunk men!

• The man was able to save the woman, who was being harassed by men late in the night.

It could have turned into a night of horror for a 25-year-old woman if a Bangladeshi flower seller hadn't come to her rescue. Gaia Guarnotta was walking through Florence, Italy, at 11.30pm near Piazza della Republica, when she was approached by around 25 drunk men who began by joking and asking for a selfie, she narrated her ordeal on her Facebook page, according to reports in The Independent.

"At some point, I can't even explain how they surrounded me, but they started saying phrases like 'come with us," Gaia said, who works as a photographer in Livorno.

After she refused the men started verbally abusing her and then dragged her by the arm.

"They chucked their drinks and straws over me and one of them, or maybe a couple of them, spat on me or tried to spit on me, while all the others were filming on their mobile phones."

As she struggled to get away, Hossein Alamgir, a flower seller from Bangladesh, stepped in and took her to safety, she wrote on her Facebook page, adding, he gave her a handkerchief and took her to get something to eat and drink and handed her a rose.

"If Hossein had not been here that evening I would not have been able to tell my story now," she wrote. "Not knowing how to thank him, I gave him a passport photo of mine so that he could remember forever the face of the girl he saved that night. Thank God there are people in the world like Hossein, who help without wanting anything in return. His is a face I will never forget."

Hossein has lived in Florence since 2005, according to Direttanews. The 58-year-old confirmed he had been given a photo to 'remember forever the girl I saved'.

He said he intervened and grabbed the crying woman by the arm and quickly took her away who was frightened and told the men to leave her alone.

Gaia said she decided to post her story online to show why feminism is important and wrote, "The media says foreigners are evil, that misogyny doesn't exist, that men and women are equal, that they have the same rights and freedoms, but we know it is not like this."