Quebec mosque shooting: More than $175,000 raised for disabled man shot seven times protecting worshippers

Aymen Derbali still in rehabilitation centre after losing use of legs

Aymen Derbali (centre) has lost the use of his legs after being shot seven times (DawaNet)

More than $175,000 (£103,000) has been raised for a man shot seven times protecting worshippers during a shooting at a mosque.

Aymen Derbali was praying at the Quebec City Islamic Cultural Centre on 29 January when a gunman walked in and opened fire, killing six people.

Witnesses said instead of fleeing, the father-of-three turned and faced the gunman in a bid to attract his attention long enough to allow others to escape.

He was in a coma for two months following the shooting, while he permanently lost the use of both legs after two bullets lodged in his spinal cord.

"I tried not to panic or flee," Mr Derbali told The Globe and Mail. "I tried to concentrate so that he wouldn't fire on others. I would rather have been paralysed for life than to have fled and been left unscathed, without having done something to help people."

The fund, raised by Canadian-Muslim non-profit organisation DawaNet, will help buy a wheelchair-accessible home for Mr Derbali.

The former aid worker is due to leave a rehabilitation centre soon, but doctors have warned against moving back into the family’s fourth-floor apartment.

Amira Elghawaby, a DawaNet volunteer, told CBC News: "He was trying to actually get his attention so that he would focus on him instead of the others, and he would give the others an opportunity to get away.

"It's an incredible act of heroism that he showed."

She added: "It's critical that we help him find a home as soon as possible so he can spend a night with his family, which, until now - almost one year after this horrible massacre - he still hasn't really been able to do.”

The organisation has raised almost half of its $400,000 target, which is hopes to hit by 28 January.

Ms Elghawaby said the family were eyeing an accessible home close to the mosque, which he still attends every Friday in his wheelchair.

“This campaign has demonstrated to them why they should remain strong in their belief that fellow Canadians won't let him down. We are going to recognise his heroism, what they've been through,” she said.

Canadian police charged Alexandre Bissonnette, a French-Canadian student, with six counts of first-degree murder and five of attempted murder following the attack on the mosque. He is currently awaiting trial.