A jeweller today praised fellow shopkeepers who chased a knife-wielding ram-raider taking part in a £20,000 robbery of his store.

Six robbers on mopeds rammed down the front door of The Jeweller, in Kingsbury, north London, brandishing knives and hammers.

Staff tried to defend themselves with baseball bats, while three customers fled the shop including a woman who had to go to hospital after cutting her leg on glass.

The gang smashed open display cabinets and scooped up at least 15 kilos of gold jewellery in the raid shortly after 2pm yesterday.

They tried to flee on motorcycles, but were met by about 40 shopkeepers from neighbouring businesses.

Incredible footage caught by onlookers shows the local businessmen gathering on the pavement and one shopkeeper, wearing an apron, is seen throwing what appears to be a meat cleaver at the robbers.

Other men are seen hurling a trolley, wooden pallets and signs in the direction of the motorcycles who they chased down the Kingsbury Road.

Eventually one of the robbers lost balance and was kicked down off his motorcycle by one of the shopkeepers.

The rider was pushed to the ground and held by shopkeepers.

His passenger fled the scene through a nearby park, leaving behind his accomplice and a bag of gold jewellery. The rest of the gang made off with at least three bags of jewellery.

The shopkeepers, all from a small parade of Iraqi run businesses, helped pick up all the gold jewellery left scattered by the robbers and returned it to staff at the family-run business.

Sami Said, 48, manager of The Jeweller, praised the men who came to help and said: “I’m very happy everyone helped. I say thanks to all those people. They did a very good thing for me.”

His son, Mohammed Said, 20, an economics student at the University of Essex, was helping his father out when the robbers burst in.

He told the Standard: “I was on the phone and I just saw two guys holding an enforcer and just smashing the front door.

“I switched on the alarm then I grabbed a baseball bat and as soon as they entered one of the guys attacked us with a hammer – he tried to swing at us with a hammer.

“I think he was holding a knife in his other hand. They were all holding hammers and knives. I was just trying to push them back. But thankfully my father and I were both holding baseball bats. We were swinging and pushing them back.

“I was just trying to defend myself. I was panicking. I was scared. My adrenaline rush was very high and I wasn’t thinking.

“Soon eight of them entered and there were too many of them so we went inside a room inside the shop. We closed the door and they tried to get in but we were holding the door, me, my father and my colleague.

“While that was happening I called the police. Within 20 seconds they smashed all the windows and took everything away on their mopeds. While that was happening people chased them.

“One guy kicked one of them and he fell and they all came round and held him down. Thankfully nothing happened to us. Everyone around helped out a lot – that was the best part. There were three customers and one of them got injured I think a woman is in hospital now, she was injured by the glass that went inside her leg.

“I was so happy about what everyone did. It was really something special. Everyone around here we know each other and hang out and visit each other’s shops. It was really great of them. While all that was happening all the owners of the shops came out and actually helped us collect all the gold as some of the gold was on the ground and gave it back to us.”

Last night dozens of shopkeepers were being interviewed by CID and Mr Said said he and his father were planning on making a feast to say thank you to everyone who helped.

Jarrah Mattar, 24, a chef at restaurant Sim Sim, was one of those who chased down the robbers and picked up a pallet to block the road and stop them getting away.

He said: “It was crazy. I was working inside and I heard someone shouting ‘catch him’. I came to look and I saw the guys with hammers and axes. They were waving them around.

“I saw two of them put their hands down [motioning] like they had a gun. They scared all the people. Then they jumped on their bikes. The first two [motorbikes] got away, a third one crashed into a Mercedes and got away and the fourth one we pushed him and caught him straight away.

“There were two people on that scooter and we caught one but the other ran away through the middle of the park. I wasn’t scared. I didn’t think in that moment. I didn’t think about anything. After that the police came. We had to help the people.”

Amir, 42, manager at Al-Sultan café, said: “Anything that people could get their hands on, they threw it. The robbers had knives and hammers, each of them had two or three items. We got one of them and held him down until the police came. He wasn’t stable so he couldn’t run and four or five of us jumped on him. The other guy ran off. He left the gold and the motorbike.

"Everybody helped out because it could have happened to any one of us. The robbers were scared. They didn’t know what to do. They panicked when they saw the reaction of the public. One English guy followed them in a van but he couldn’t catch them and his windscreen was broken. He tried to stop them as well. We got one bag of gold back, there was two or three bags taken. The rest they took away. It’s everybody’s responsibility to support each other. I hope they learn a lesson.”

A spokesman for Scotland Yard said a man was arrested nearby on suspicion of armed robbery. He was being questioned at a north London police station.