A teenager seen brandishing a zombie knife as he tried to attack a driver has avoided jail.

Joshua Gardner was handed a suspended sentence because, the judge said, he was kidnapped just weeks before.

The frightening video was filmed on a busy street in Croydon as people went about their day.

In the few weeks before you committed this offence, you were bungled into a car, threatened with a gun, because of a drug debt your friend had run up. Anuja Dhir QC, Judge

Joshua Gardner Credit: Met Police

Gardner's outburst of violence was caught on dashcam footage of a vehicle travelling in the opposite direction.

A police officer recognised Gardner from a previous conviction for attempted robbery.

This incident was extremely terrifying for onlookers - passersby. Gardner accepted that his behaviour was so serious in the street that his conduct caused members of the public to fear for their personal safety Crown Prosecution Service