A man running with a machete after ‘wrenching it’ from a motorcyclist and pillion wielding was then chased by the pair with a hammer outside a London tube station last night.
The chaotic incident, thought to be an attempted robbery, happened around 6.20pm on London Road, outside Elephant and Castle Underground station, and was captured on video by onlookers.
I just thought I was going to see someone die,’ one witness told MailOnline. ‘It was one of the worst things I have ever seen.’
In one video, a man in a motorcycle helmet and purple printed jacket is seen sprinting across the street with a machete in his hand, as a motorbike, thought to be his, lies on its side in front of a car.
The man runs onto the pavement and moves quickly out of the way as two people on a moped approach him. The duo swerve, making a U-turn in the centre of the road, and the passenger can be seen wielding a hammer.
It comes as Amir Khan launched a stinging attack on London Mayor Sadiq Khan for failing to tackle violent crime and making the city ‘unliveable.’
The former world champion boxer, 35, has abandoned plans to move to London with his family after being robbed of his £72,000 luxury watch at gunpoint while out with his wife in the capital on Monday.
Violent crime is on the rise under Sadiq Khan in London, according to official figures released by the Mayor’s Office for Policing and Crime in January. This data revealed there were 233,965 offences of ‘violence against the person’ recorded by the Metropolitan Police in 2021 — up 6.1 per cent or 13,358 from 220,607 in 2020.
There have been 24 homicide victims in London since the beginning of the year.
One witness, a woman in her late 30s, told MailOnline that the duo were trying to take the motorbike from the man in the purple jacket.
She said that the man in the purple jacket ‘wrestled the knife from the two men on the scooter’, after they tried to take his motorcycle.
‘It was really awful… that knife is insane, it’s got some reach,’ she said.
‘I was walking back to Elephant and Castle, and something didn’t feel right. There was a bike on the floor, and another facing the wrong way.
‘I was walking with my Aunt, and I said “that man’s got a knife”, I could see the long blade… I just thought I was going to see someone die.’
The woman, from Gloucestershire, added: ‘I live in the country … It was one of the worst things I have ever seen. I just need to go back to the countryside.’
The witness said that the motorcyclist kept trying to return to his fallen bike, but was being ‘chased’ by the pair on the moped.
He then snatched the blade from them, and ‘seconds’ later, the two men returned wielding a hammer.
The witness, who was standing at a roundabout, said that she sheltered a younger girl behind her body, encouraging her not to look.
The motorcyclist, now holding the knife, then ran across the road, and was chased again by the pair, before they made a U-turn in the road, and drove away.
As they made their exit, the pair crashed fell and crashed on the floor, prompting an eruption of cheering from onlookers, the witness said.
She said that the driver of a car, the man pictured wearing a white shirt, black trousers and jacket, got out of the car and took the knife from the motorcyclist.
‘He handed it in at the security desk in the tube,’ she said.
The witness said she could not see the faces of any of those involved, and believes ‘it wasn’t a gang thing’, but an attempted motorcycle robbery.
In a second video, the man in a purple jacket was helped back onto the motorbike in the centre of the road by two bystanders.
In this clip, another man in a white shirt, black jacket and trousers has taken the machete from him, and carries it pointing down to the ground.
The motorcyclist in purple is then seen riding away from the scene, passing close to a bus.
Commenting on the video, one person on Twitter said: ‘The streets of London are no longer paved with gold, just red from the daily blood spilled due to knife crime.’
Another described it as ‘@SadiqKhan ‘s Lawless London!’, with another describing the city as a ‘S***hole’.
Replying to the video on Twitter, Chief Superintendent Roy Smith from New Scotland Yard thanked onlookers for capturing the ‘helpful’ footage.
He added: ‘This must have been terrifying for people nearby. I’ve tagged @MetCC so that we can get this recorded and the images passed to @MPSSouthwark for investigation.’
He later retweeted the video, adding: ‘This is exactly the sort of information and footage which is helpful for police.
‘When it’s too dangerous to intervene (like this) please call 999 and then capture as much evidence as possible (vehicles, faces, clothes) so that colleagues can help.’
A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police added that officers were quickly on scene but those involved had fled on mopeds. They recovered the machete, and enquiries are ongoing.
It comes as Amir Khan said he was ‘in genuine fear for his life’ during robbery in East London on Monday,
He had a gun thrust in his face as masked assailants stole his Franck Muller Vanguard Chronograph watch before escaping while his distraught wife Faryal Makhdoom, 30 looked on.
‘I’m not sure if I even want to return to London for the foreseeable future because of increasing crime, terrible traffic and it’s not safe,’ he told MailOnline. ‘This is no place for me and my family.
‘My plan was to move to London later this year with Faryal and the kids but after what happened there’s no chance that we’ll be doing that.
‘London is not a place I want to live in anymore. Our plan to move there is not happening. We’re going to stick with living in our home in Bolton and spending time in Dubai.’
Turning his attention to London Mayor Sadiq Khan, the boxer fumed: ‘Mayor Khan needs to pull his finger out and tackle the increasing levels of gun and knife crime. He’s making the city unliveable. You can’t drive anywhere, traffic is horrendous and there’s no quality of life.
‘It’s disgusting what is happening in London and what happened to me. Sadiq Khan is doing a terrible job and this huge increase in gun and knife crime is happening under his watch. It’s absolutely disgraceful.’
He added: ‘You don’t expect to be robbed at gun point, not in London. It breaks my heart to see what is happening in the city. People have been contacting me from all over the world to tell me that they don’t feel safe visiting London anymore. Mayor Khan and the authorities really need to do something about this.’
A spokesperson for the Mayor of London said that crime ‘continues to fall in London, bucking the national trend’.
They said: Knife crime with injury [is] down by 12 per cent, gun crime down by 29 per cent and burglary down by 22 per cent since May 2016.’
‘However there’s still a long way to go. Keeping people safe in London remains the Mayor’s number one priority and he is taking action by being both tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime.
‘He is investing record amounts in policing, has put 1,300 additional police officers on the streets, and is funding programmes to provide positive opportunities and support for 100,000 young Londoners.’