Three men have been arrested after Amir Khan was robbed at gunpoint for his £72,000 watch.
The Bolton-born boxer had the Franck Muller timepiece snatched from his wrist during the terrifying ordeal in April. CCTV footage showed a gang of robbers running towards him and pointing a gun at him, forcing him to hand over his expensive watch.
Staff at Sahara Grill in Leyton in east London ran to help Khan when they realised he was in trouble. Following the attack on April 18, Amir, 35 and his wife Faryal Makhdoom, 30, ran away and got into a waiting car.
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In an update issued to the Sun this morning (June 22), police said three men have now been arrested in connection with the incident. A Scotland Yard spokesperson said: "Detectives investigating a gunpoint street robbery in Leyton have made three arrests.
"The three men - A, 25, B, 34 and C, 20 - were arrested on suspicion of robbery after warrants were executed by detectives this morning. Man A has also been arrested on suspicion of possession of a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence; man C has been arrested for this offence and possession of ammunition. All three remain in custody."
Khan posted on social media after the incident to confirm he and his wife were safe. He wrote: "Just had my watch taken off me at gun point in East London, Leyton. I crossed the road with Faryal, luckily she was few steps behind me.
"Two men ran to me, he asked for my watch whilst having a gun pointed in my face. The main thing is we’re both safe."
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 also 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."
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