The attack on the pensioners happened in Most Holy Trinity RC Church in Dockhead around 6pm on March 15.
A brother and sister in their 70s and a man in his 20s were assaulted before church-goers and members of the public pulled a suspect to the ground.
They held the person until the police were flagged down and a 35-year-old man, was arrested on suspicion of grievous bodily harm and placed in custody.
One of the people who responded after the attack told News Shopper his legs still shook days afterwards.
The 53-year-old from Bermondsey said: “I was terrified. I was absolutely terrified.
“It happened on Saturday and I’m talking to you and my legs are shaking describing it. It’s going to take me weeks to come back down.”
He said that he was one of three people who helped to restrain a suspect after the attack.
Another man first jumped on the suspect’s back to bring him to the floor, prevented by the speaker kneeling on the man’s legs.
Meanwhile, one of the pensioners held him down by his shoulders.
He only looked up when the police were flagged down and arrested the suspect.
He said: “I realised that there were about 25 people around me. Everybody kept coming up and shaking my hands and hugging me and patting me on the back and saying thank you.
“But the thing is I wasn’t the one that stopped him. I came along after he was being held down. I was saying to the people, no, he’s the hero.
“The guy that brought him down is the main brave one. I mean, I know I knelt on his legs, but I only had the bravery to do that because somebody else was there.”
The man, who has been going to the church for five years, does not want to be named because “the thanks from the people in the church is enough”.
He said of the lady who held him down: “She was so brave. I’ve got a sister that I love but this woman’s in her 70s and she still went after the bloke.
“I went back in the church and the service was going on.
“Me and my friend at church, when we saying the Our Father my mate was holding my hand all the way through the Our Father.”
“Next time I go back to church, I just want to thank the people that asked if I was alright.”
A Metropolitan Police spokesperson said: “At around 18:OOhrs on Saturday, 15 March, police were flagged down by members of the public in Dockhead SD.
“A man was being detained having allegedly assaulted two men and a woman.
“The man, aged 35, was arrested on suspicion of grievous bodily harm and remains in custody.
“The victims, two men in their 70s and 20s, and a woman also in her 70s, were injured – an update on their condition awaits.”
