Customers at an upmarket north London hair salon screamed in terror as a man “ran amok” armed with a metal nail file.

The 21-year-old burst into Stonehill salon in Muswell Hill while customers underwent treatments at the boutique which counts TV chef Richard Corrigan and former EastEnders actor Tod Carty amongst its clients.

Stylist Ted Civilka, 22, originally from Lithuania, was with a client when he spotted a man who kept walking in and out of the salon and behaving “oddly”.

He asked for a haircut but was told it was too busy and then left.

The man then got into an argument with a group of his friends across the road, before returning and following the salon manager down into a basement store room.

When she screamed for help one of the man’s friends came inside to lead him away, before he was attacked with a metal nail file.

Mr Civilka said: “He was looking in the kitchen area for something to use as a weapon and he looked like he wanted to stab his friend. He grabbed a metal nail file.

“People started screaming. The man’s friend smashed into him and made sure he dropped the nail file.

“There was a group of his friends trying to restrain him. He wanted a set of car keys but they wouldn’t give them to him.

“They held him on the floor for 10 minutes until the police arrived.”

Manager Ornella, 32, said she was ‘petrified’ after being followed around the shop by the man.

She said: “His friends put him down on the floor to control him, the windows in the salon were going ‘bang bang’ because there were six guys controlling the one guy.

“He went to hit somebody with the nail file. I think he was asking for the car keys and his friends weren’t giving them to him.”

One customer, who asked not to be named, said: “It was pretty terrifying, we all ran to one side of the salon. His friends jumped on top of him and sat on him. A few of his friends were covered in blood, he didn’t hurt anyone in the salon.

“It was frightening when it was just him and these six massive blokes covered in blood.”

A spokesman for the police confirmed they arrived to the scene at 5.30pm and drove the man to hospital.

A police spokesman said: “Police were called at 17:32hrs on Saturday, 3 May to reports of a disturbance at Hairdressers in Dukes Avenue, N10. A 21-year-old man was taken to a north London hospital where he was medically assessed.”

The spokesman said there were no further injuries.