Ringleader did ‘a dummy run’

Restaurateur blocked door to save lives

SHELTER Staff take in revellers BRAVE Sergio barricades door A HEROIC restaurant owner saved the lives of 28 diners and staff by barricading the door to keep out one of the attackers.

Sergio Farina refused to let the knife-wielding terrorist into Arthur Hooper’s in Borough Market.

The brave restaurateur calmly told him: “I’m not letting you in.”

CCTV footage shows terrified people piling into the restaurant, with staff urging them to hide.

Seconds after Sergio pulled one reveller in safely, the terrorist tried to force open the door. Sergio held it shut and the man fled as the shutters were lowered.

Sergio, from Pontevedra in Spain, said: “There were three or four minutes when I felt fear.

“You never imagine something like this can happen to you, but it did. I called home when we were still locked inside, telling my wife not to come near the place.”

He added: “The police acted really quickly. They opened fire when they stabbed someone outside my restaurant.” THE ringleader of the London Bridge terror attack carried out a “dummy run” a week before the atrocity, a witness claims.

A drinker in the Market Porter pub says he noticed Khuram Butt acting suspiciously in the bustling street on April 27. The regular, who did not wish to be named, said he recognised the man as the terrorist in the Arsenal away shirt.

He claimed to have seen him “wandering back and forth” along Stoney Street. The man said: “I saw the photo and knew it was the same guy I saw a week earlier.

“He must have been doing a dry run. It’s scary.” Detectives are scouring CCTV footage to see if the terrorists scoped out the market before their attack.