Footage has emerged showing how restaurant staff rushed to the aid of Amir Khan moments after he had left the venue to be robbed at gun-point for his custom-made gem-encrusted £72,000 watch.
Staff at Sahara Grill in Leyton in east London ran to help the Bolton boxer when they realised he was in trouble. The robbers snatched Khan's Franck Muller timepiece - the Met Police is hunting the perpetrators but fear it could be offered for sale on the black market at a discounted price.
Following the attack on April 18, Amir, 35 and his wife Faryal Makhdoom, 30, ran away and got into a waiting car. In CCTV footage shared by the couple, Amir can be seen crossing the road with his wife a few steps behind just prior to the raid.
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As he reaches the other side, the footage shows a group of robbers running towards him and pointing a gun at him, forcing him to hand over his expensive watch. Wife Faryal is seen stepping back before crossing to the other side of the road.
Speaking to ITV's Good Morning Britain afterwards, Amir said he felt 'unsafe' in London because it's 'very dangerous'. The owner of Sahara Grill has now shared what happened minutes before the incident, and admitted his staff are always alert as such incident happen often.
Speaking to MyLondon, restaurant co-owner Tahir Razzaq said: "In the last couple of minutes leading up to it, Amir Khan was in our shop and as he was about to leave, our staff took photos with him, selfies too. They did it as he was on his way out so that during the meal no one approached him.
"Then when he was leaving, people approached him for more pictures and a couple of minutes later as they went outside, one of the staff was looking from the glass to see people approaching him and thought it might be for a selfie, then they realised the people had pulled a gun out.
"My staff alerted the senior staff and they all ran out of the shop to help, while everyone else was running the other way our staff ran towards him. By the time the staff ran to the other side of the road the robbers had already run off.
"It was over in a couple of seconds, so quick - only our staff ran towards him. My senior staff, Monnar Myint was reassuring Amir at the time but all our staff were upset, they're big fans of Amir in the first place.
"The staff aren't really trained in those situation but in Leyton we have had a lot of issues in the past. It's cleaned up now, but our staff would always go to aid customers, even if it's nothing to do with them they would always go to help."
Khan, the former WBA and IBF light-welterweight champion and an Olympic silver medallist, criticised London Mayor Sadiq Khan for failing to tackle crime in the capital, urging him to 'pull his finger out'. Amir said he had been so traumatised by the incident plans for him and his wife to move to London had been cancelled.
Later, Detective Constable Ben Grix, of the Met's North East Command burglary and robbery team, said: "I am today releasing an image of the stolen watch which is a high-value Franck Muller timepiece valued at around £70,000.
"It is a one-off custom made design and will be easily recognised by anyone it is offered to for sale. If you, or anyone you know is offered the watch at a discounted price please contact us immediately."
He added: “If you were driving in the area around High Road, Leyton, at the time of the offence and have dashcam, please do check your footage for anything that might assist our investigation."
