PIO fights off robber using vodka bottle, chair

London, May 9: A brave 40year-old Indian-origin shopkeeper in the UK fought off a knife-wielding robber using very unusual ‘weapons’ — a bottle of vodka and a chair.

Anil Velji leaped into action when the raider burst into his convenience store in Oldham, and lunged at him with a knife. With his teenage son by his side, Velji attempted to fend off his attacker with the spirit bottle before falling to the ground.

He kicked the man from the floor as he continued to come towards him, and managed to pick up a chair behind the shop counter and fight back.

Quickly the man retreated and fled the scene with Velji giving chase with a piece of wood, Manchester Evening News reported.

Velji shared this footage with police on April 23. He was quoted as saying that the man had entered the store a few minutes earlier and had been ‘eyeing up’ the spirits. “I asked what he was interested in, he told me he didn’t have enough money for the expensive stuff and kept looking.”

“I kept serving customers as he did, he was waiting for them to leave and the shop to be empty. I picked up a bottle of vodka for him and turned around to put it in the till, I heard a noise behind me and the man had pulled out a knife and was coming at me behind the counter,” he said. The police came within a minute of his hitting the button but it was too late and the robber had fled by then. — PTI