THE owner of a ransacked warehouse told of how his staff discovered a "naked man" who was "holding an axe" during a botched robbery.

Owner of the store, Randhir Kumar Bawa, rushed into Lighting, Warehouse and Electrical on Commerce Street around 9am this morning after his staff reported a disturbance in their warehouse next door.

When an engineer confirmed there had been no power outage in the area, staff checked CCTV to see a man, who they believe had sneaked in on Thursday evening, "standing naked" and "holding an axe".

Staff immediately called the police, who were called to negotiate with the man, who was himself trapped inside, having allegedly pulled electrical cables and cut through pipes.

Mr Bawa added: "We usually open at 8 o'clock. We have two units. The first team comes in at 8am. We have another place in the Gorbals as well.

READ MORE: Police and fire crews swarm Commerce Street warehouse amid botched robbery

"The five guys came in, and they tried to open next door, it wouldn't open. The manager phoned me straight away. They thought the switch had tripped or it was a power failure.

"I called Scottish Power and complaiend about the power, but they said there was no report at their end. The engineer was there at 8.30am.

"He confirmed there was no failure, but something inside had happened.

"Usually I come in at 9.30am, so I came in early at nine-ish. So I went with a key to open it, and what I saw was three handsaws coming from under the shutters. Straight away, I knew someone was at it, trying to do the place in.

"We didn't know how someone could get in, it was locked, and the back was locked as well. There was no litter or anything lying around either.

READ MORE: Emergency services rush to Commerce Street ‘disturbance’ in Glasgow

"Then we were making theories, that they dug a hole form upstairs, but the walls are too thick. We looked at the camera, and there was stuff all over the floor, none of the saws were there.

"When we were looking at the screen, this naked guy, he looked naked, walked down the stairs. There was somebody there. He was coming downstairs.

"That spurred us on and we called the police. It looked like he had an axe in his hand. There is an axe in there for chopping things."

Staff in the shop also reported the man threatened to “kill the polis dug” if officers refused to let him go.

We told earlier how police and fire crews rushed to the store just south of the River Clyde.

Emergency services swarmed the area at around 9.30am.

"We called the police, he was naked and had wrecked the police. They tried to negotiate with him, but he said he wouldn't come out and to take the police away. The police negotiators asked him to put his hands up, and he was aggressive with them.

READ MORE: Robber refuses to leave Commerce Street warehouse in botched robbery

"Then all of a sudden there were 200 people watching. The fire brigade came, there were 40 police here, they put on their safety gear in case he did a runner.

"They cut the shutters from the front and got him out. He pulled all my cables, cut all my pipes. He made a diagram with all of the police, like part of an escape plan. Or to open up the shutters for others.

"That stuff is heavy, you need a truck to carry that. There is expensive stuff, on the top shelf, but you would need a lot of manual labour to steal that."

Mr Bawa has since confirmed that the store will remain open and that purchases can be made at their other store in the Gorbals.

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Police Scotland have been contacted for comment.