The crime scene in Swains Lane 

A RESTAURANT owner rushed to help a victim of a violent attack found lying in a pool of broken glass inside an upmarket deli.

Harry Lobek, owner of London Shell Co, recalled dramatic scenes last night (Thursday) in Swains Lane around 8pm.

Diners fled into shops and restaurants and staff barricaded themselves in the toilet after a man was reportedly stabbed with a metal pole outside Superette, close to the junction with the Highgate Road.

Three men were seen speeding away with police yet to make arrests.

Mr Lobek told the New Journal how he had rushed in to help staff in the deli and found the victim lying “moaning behind the counter”.

He said: “I went to look and saw someone on the floor just bleeding out. The girlfriend was screaming.

“I got down and lifted up his t-shirt and had two puncture wounds in his back about two centimetres wide, side by side.

“I grabbed a towel and began to put pressure on the wound and asked the people to call the police and an ambulance.

“The victim on the floor kept asking me to move him because he was lying on a whole load of broken glass which was cutting his knees.

“He was about 28-32 years old.

“His girlfriend was still screaming and she asked me to speak to the ambulance. I asked everyone to go outside apart from people that were helpful – because she was screaming quite a lot.

“Eventually the police officers and myself attempted to lift the victim and we pulled him off the floor and paramedics came to cut off his clothes and he’d been stabbed three times in the back.

“I thought he was going to die – his face turned white his eyes rolled back to his head, he was throwing up a little bit.

“It looked like he was searching for stuff but apparently that’s just him just passing out.”

The New Journal understands a weapon, believed to be part of a metal pole used in the attack, was later found in a restaurants on the parade.

Mr Lobek – who is celebrating his birthday today – said a bus stop close to Tesco had been smashed during the attack and that a fire extinguisher had been thrown through it.

He said: “We had tables outside the restaurant and customers were asking me what the noise was and I told them I thought it was just kids messing about, but it escalated quickly.

‘There was then a car parked opposite our shop – directly on the other side of the road which sped off towards St Alban’s Road with three guys in it.

“One older guy and two kids and the older guy was holding these two metal poles  a screw on the end of it, it looked like a pole you would screw into something like a sun umbrella stand.

“I said to the customers it’s all over now so it won’t be a problem anymore and then suddenly everyone from outside the shop came in screaming.

“I asked one of my team to lock the door and close everyone in. It was then I realised the victim’s girlfriend was inside our shop and she was saying ‘my baby, my baby, my baby’.”

There were suggestions that the whole violent argument was over a girl.

Mr Lobek said: “The weirdest thing was after everything was quiet we were trying to resume service because people still had food at their tables.

“I just felt bad for the girls that work in Superette – they’re quite young and they’re in their by themselves. They were terrified and locked themselves in the toilet.

“It was really great the way everyone helped though – there must have been about 20 police cars and they closed the road from the pub all the way down to Tesco.”

The Met Police said it would be making a statement later today (Friday).

A London Ambulance Service spokesperson said: “We sent resources to the scene, including an ambulance crew, a paramedic in a fast response car, an incident response officer and a clinical team manager.

“We also dispatched a trauma team in a car from London’s Air Ambulance.

“Our first paramedics arrived in five minutes.

“We treated a man at the scene and took him to a major trauma centre.”