- Police release CCTV footage in appeal for information on suspects
Police are hoping that dramatic footage released today of a shopkeeper and his son fighting off two masked robbers armed with a gun and a knife will help them find the culprits.
CCTV images show the suspects, wearing balaclavas and hoods, casually enter the shop before one of the men puts a gun to the shopkeeper's head.
The shopkeeper's son races forward to tackle the gunman and the four men become involved in a violent scuffle.
Gun terror: The dramatic scene during the armed robbery at the Gonca supermarket in Finsbury Park, north London, on December 21 last year. The pistol is circled
The footage from inside the Gonca supermarket on Blackstock Road in Finsbury Park, north London, shows the gunman pistol-whipping the son while the knifeman tries repeatedly to stab the shopkeeper, bringing the weapon down towards his head.
After the incident, at 9.45pm on Tuesday, December 21, spilled out on to the street, the attackers fled empty-handed down nearby Monsell Road and may have got into a dark-coloured Vauxhall Astra.
Escape: The violence spills out on to the street before the robbers escape
Got you: The suspect is caught on camera
Police say the gunman was about 20, wearing black bottoms, blue gloves and black trainers.The knifeman,also about 20, was wearing a black hooded top, black and white patterned bandana, and black bottoms with two white horizontal stripes and white trainers.
The 46-year-old shopkeeper and his 25-year-old son escaped with cuts and bruises.
Detectives are linking the incident to another armed robbery which took place minutes earlier at 9.37pm at My Shop, in Fortress Road, Kentish Town, where a gunman and knifeman entered the shop before threatening staff and making off with £300 cash from the till.
The first suspect was again described as wearing blue gloves, while the second man, armed with a 'kitchen-type' knife, was wearing a patterned bandana and tracksuit bottoms with two white stripes down the legs.
The pair escaped along Burghley Road from Dartmouth Park Hill, leaving staff shocked but unhurt.
Detective Constable Dawn Bolitho, from Finchley Flying Squad, said: 'These are clearly men who are fully prepared to use violence and we would urge anyone with information to please contact us as soon as possible.