Six men armed with axes carried out a “smash-and-grab” raid at London’s Selfridges department store on Thursday night. One of the robbers was dressed in a burka as motorcycles rammed the shop and jewellery and watches were taken.
Police said the robbers smashed glass cabinets to steal high value watches. They grabbed watches and gems, together worth hundreds of thousands of pounds, as staff and customers scattered in terror. Witnesses said it appeared the men had disguised themselves as rich Arab women, with some carrying designer handbags.
They mingled with hundreds of shoppers before suddenly producing axes and smashed their way into display cabinets stuffing dozens of high value luxury watches into bags.
The gang then sped off on mopeds with their flowing black garments flapping in the wind. However one bike skidded and crashed, dumping two of the robbers on the road. The moped crashed just under a mile away from Selfridges. One rider dressed in full motorcycle gear together with a second man dressed in a burka fell to the ground.
Pizza waiter Mohamed Hussein, 29, sprinted from a nearby pizza restaurant and pinned down one of the two suspects who were on the vehicle. Both men were later arrested as members of the public stopped them from fleeing.
Mohamed, with the help of a pub bouncer, detained one of the suspects by sitting on him until police arrived with armed officers at the scene at around 8.30pm.
Mohamed later described the incident: “I was outside the pizza restaurant where I work and saw a bike with two people on it skid and crash. I knew they were criminals because I recognised the scooter from a few days ago when my friend had his mobile phone stolen. The man who’d been riding the scooter called out, ‘Help my wife.’ But I could tell straight away she wasn’t a woman. I shouted for someone to call the police and the rider started running away. I chased him for 60 or 70 metres then pinned him to the floor and pulled his helmet off. He was wearing a burka underneath and I could only see his eyes.”
The 29-year-old bodybuilder and law student, described by a colleague as a “Vin Diesel action hero,” said “I feel confident anyone would do this. I am no hero. Some other guys helped me hold him, while we waited for the police. I wasn’t worried. I used to do boxing.”
Eye witness 28 year old David Carrozo said “Someone noticed a bag had fallen off the moped and that it had opened and a bunch a watches fell out. The duffle bag was full of watches and jewellery. One of the riders tried to escape along Charlotte Street and then he was held to the ground as other people were getting involved. He really put up a struggle. When the police turned up they put him in the back of a van and he was kicking and screaming,”
Detective Chief Inspector Andy Noyes said: “This was a brazen robbery, and appears to have been well planned and thought through. Fortunately no-one was injured. The store was very busy and this will have been a shocking thing for people to witness. I’d like to thank those members of the public who stepped in and detained our two suspects. Their quick thinking and brave actions have helped our investigation.”
One of the arrested men remains in hospital with a fractured leg and the other is in police custody. The raid took place 30 minutes before the department store was due to close at 21:00 BST.
Scotland Yard armed response units raced to the scene as bystanders claimed shots had been fired. A police source said last night: “They were possibly mistaken by the sound of breaking armoured glass cabinets being smashed.”
The value of the stolen watches is yet to be established.
