Pensioner fends off London smash-n-grab gang with just umbrella

A pensioner has taken on a gang of masked thieves with just an umbrella after they abandoned a smash-n-grab job on a jewellery store in upmarket London.

The group – dressed head-to-toe in black and wearing motorbike helmets – initially rushed the Watchfinder Co store on New Bond Street with a sledgehammer.

As panicked shoppers watched on, some filming with their mobile phones, two of the gang took turns hacking away at the store’s glass window with little success.

After a few minutes, the group abandoned their brazen attempt and took to nearby mopeds in a bid to flee the scene.

It was at this moment a number of the robbers, left to flee on foot, would have felt a thwack and jolt of the pensioner’s umbrella strike as he did his best to detain them, with his heroics caught on a security camera.

A group of builders also rushed out onto the street to help, with one of the gang restrained with cable ties until police arrived, reports the Daily Mail.

The attempted robbery reportedly came just hours after a Regent Street store of jeweller Mappin and Webb was targeted.

London has experienced an increase in a spate of crimes involving gangs on mopeds, with more than 16,000 thefts by individuals on the scooters reported to Metropolitan Police in the 12 months to June, the Daily Mail reports.

This figure is more than three times the number reported between July 2015 and June 2016.