Pizza couriers facing robbery and stabbing in East End, police warn

PIZZA delivery riders are facing a wave of robberies in London’s East End including attacks with knives.

One has been off work in shock after grappling with a gang in a tower block he was delivering to where they ambushed him coming out of the lift.

Now police are warning pizza takeaways to follow measures to avoid being lured into traps.

Abdul Ahmedi struggled with a knifeman and four accomplices as he got out of a lift on the 5th floor of a block of flats on the Isle of Dogs.

It was only his thick leather jacket that saved him, he believes.

“One of them tried to stab me twice,” he told the East London Advertiser. “It was terrifying—he cut my jacket as I struggled with him.

“Then two of them kicked me and grabbed the pizzas.

“I kept struggling, but was afraid of the knife which cut through my jacket.

“The blade would have gone through the vein in my arm if I hadn’t been wearing it.”

Abdul, 35, a married man with a baby daughter, was off work for a week after his terrifying ordeal while delivering for Mario’s takeaway in Limehouse.

It was the second time he had been ambushed in Manchester Road, after being lured to another block of flats by a thug who then tried to strangle him.

Officers from Tower Hamlets robbery squad are following up leads to this latest spate of courier robberies, mostly around Blackwall and the Isle of Dogs.

The thugs—usually aged between 15 and 21—lure couriers to an address by ordering a takeaway by mobile phone with a blocked number.

Now takeaway restaurants are following police advice and checking mobile phone numbers before setting out and logging the data on computers—and even then won’t make deliveries if they suspect an ambush.

Detectives are appealing to anyone witnessing a courier being attacked or has information to contact Bethnal Green police station on 030-0123 1212, or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800-555111.