An 88-year-old military veteran has been praised for "extraordinary bravery" after fighting off a gang of five robbers to rescue a young woman from being mugged.

John Nixon, a widower, told the Evening Standard he trained as a commando at the Achnacarry depot in the Highlands in the 1940s and fought in the Korean War.

In fighting off the gang, he was cut in the head and on his hands after he karate chopped one of the knife-wielding attackers to the ground in Kentish town, northwest London.

He said stepped in to help after seeing the group of youths grab at the woman's handbag before being slashed with what he described as a pocket knife.

“My initial thoughts were to divert their attention away from the girl who was screaming. I shouted ‘leave her alone’,” he told the newspaper.