Christmas drinkers were left in shock at the Medina Railway Tavern in Newport (Picture: Google)
A pair of armed crooks were chased off by a pub drinker who threw an ashtray at them.
The pub regular became a ‘have-a-go hero’ when he chased two balaclava-clad men – one of them armed – away from the pub.
Christmas drinkers were shocked when a man arrived at the pub by taxi and ran inside, pursued by the two thugs, one of them armed with a metal spade.
But one plucky local at the Medina Railway Tavern in Newport, Isle of Wight, managed to scare them off by throwing an ashtray and confronting them outside.
Duncan Scott, the pub’s landlord, came downstairs when he heard a commotion at around 7pm on Thursday.
Mr Scott said: ‘It was very busy in the pub. A former customer banned from the premises, on the police’s Pub Watch scheme, came in to see his father, who was drinking, pursued by two men wearing balaclavas.
The two men never got inside the pub thanks to one brave regular (Picture: Getty)
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‘One of them was armed with a spade or shovel head, without the handle, which looked like it was being used as a weapon.
‘They tried to get inside. They kicked the door and damaged it, but one of my locals – stupidly or bravely – went outside and tackled them.
‘He did so by hurling an ashtray at their heads and confronting them, before they eventually retreated. Luckily, he managed to fend them off.’
The customer did not wish to be identified.
‘The two attackers never actually set foot inside the premises. My barmaid then called the police,’ Mr Scott added.
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‘Everyone was a bit shaken, but the men never got inside the pub, so none of my customers were put at risk. At the end of the day, I’m thankful no one got hurt.
‘It was a bit shocking, but it was nothing personal against the pub. They were just after this one individual.
‘It was, by far, the most serious thing to happen at the pub in almost 17 years of me being the landlord.’
Mr Scott said that social media reports the men had managed to get inside the pub and that one of them had an axe were ‘completely false’.
He explained that one witness had passed on a partial vehicle registration number belonging to a dark-coloured saloon car, possibly a Skoda or BMW, to police.
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The two balaclava-clad men – one armed with a shovel with no head – tried to get into the pub.
