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Footage of a police officer smashing the windscreen of a car before cutting a hole through it with a knife - in what the driver claims is a case of mistaken identity - is being investigated.

The video taken in Gospel Oak yesterday afternoon by the vehicle's occupant is now being looked into by the Metropolitan Police's Directorate of Professional Standards.

It shows the policeman repeatedly yelling: “Get out the car.”

He starts by hammering on the driver’s window before starting to smash the windscreen, after being told over the radio the driver is not qualified to drive.

The officer then pulls out a knife and starts hacking through the glass with the blade as the driver insists: “I’ve got a licence and insurance.”

Eventually, the frightened man gets out the car and one of the police officers at the scene then seems to recognise him.

The driver tells them : “Stop, what you doing this for?

“You’re on camera, do you know what you’ve just done?”

Driver Leon Fontana told the Standard he had been on the way to the shops when police stopped his Ford Zetec and mistook him for his cousin.

A Met Police spokesman confirmed no one had been arrested over the incident and the officers involved have not been suspended or placed on restricted duties.

Mr Fontana said: “My car belongs to me, I’ve got a licence, I’m fully insured, I have an MOT.

“For some reason the officer thought I was my cousin, even though I showed him my ID and took the keys out.”

“He was just aggressive from the get go and then it was just ‘smash, smash, smash’,” he said.

“Even if I was someone who only had a provisional licence, that’s not the way an officer should conduct themselves.”

Mr Fontana went on: “I didn’t know what to do. I was in shock. My body just froze.

“I was just shouting ’I’ve got a licence, I’ve got insurance’ but he continued to be aggressive and smashing the glass.

“When he pulled out a flick knife there were ricochets from the glass. For my own safety I had to get out the car.”

The 25-year-old, who says he has put in a complaint, claimed several shards of glass flew into his eye and his car has been seriously damaged.

He said: “I just thought ‘is this for real? Is this really happening?’

“There was so much shock. It’s something nobody should ever have to experience.”

The police spokesman said: "The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) is aware of footage circulating on social media of an incident involving two uniformed officers in Camden.

"The incident took place at Weedington Road, NW5, at around 5pm on Friday, September 16.

"The footage will now be subject to an investigation by officers from the Directorate of Professional Standards (DPS).

"As soon as the MPS was made aware of the footage, the DPS was contacted immediately. The individual who uploaded the footage has been contacted by DPS officers.

"As this matter is in its early stages, the officers have not been suspended or placed on restricted duties.

"No one was arrested during the incident."