Watch: While parts of US ban backpacks, Dutch students use them to thwart attacks

Dutch students at Scala College in the Netherlands' Alphen aan den Rijn teamed up and appeared to thwart an attacker's blades during a Tuesday altercation using just their backpacks, according to The Daily Mail.

Contrarily, several schools across the U.S. have banned backpacks in the weeks following the deadly Parkland, Florida school shooting in hopes to beef up safety measures for students.

In the case of Scala College, however, the students' backpacks may very well have been the thing that saved lives.

What happened during the incident?

In the video, you can see a group of students approach a suspect armed with two long knives while outside on the college campus.

The students begin throwing backpacks at the suspect as he attempts to get away. Some of the backpacks make contact with the suspect, and he trips and falls at one point.

After regaining his footing, the suspect tries to take on the group of students with his knives.

The group converges on the suspect, forcing him outside a campus gate, and begins swinging backpacks at the attacker's body and his knives.

Later on in the video, the suspect can be seen walking away from the campus, looking behind him, as some students follow.

Who was that guy, anyway?

According to The Daily Mail, police identified the suspect as a 44-year-old man known to the students.

Police reportedly took the suspect into custody and he remains there while they conduct an investigation.

See the altercation in the video below.