CCTV shows moment armed gang robbed Amir Khan of his £72,000 watch
The former light-welterweight world champion says incident left him ‘very scared’ to walk around London
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Newly-released CCTV footage shows the moment boxer Amir Khan was robbed at gunpoint for his £72,000 diamond-encrusted watch in east London.
The Olympic silver medallist, 35, and his wife Faryal Makhdoom, 30, were crossing the road to get to their car after leaving a restaurant in Leyton when they were targeted on Monday night.
The clip shows two people running towards them and pointing guns at Mr Khan, according to a post on his Instagram account.
Ms Makhdoom, who he has three children with, is seen running away from the gun threat and nearly getting hit by a car as she dashes across the road back to the restaurant.
The robbers demanded Mr Khan hand them the Swiss-made Franck Muller Vanguard Chronograph watch, which is covered in 719 diamonds. He handed it over before the robbers fled the scene in a car.
On Friday, Mr Khan told ITV’s Good Morning Britain (GMB) in an interview from Dubai that he’s now “very scared” to walk around London as he believes it is “very dangerous”.
The former light-welterweight world champion said he initially thought the robbers were people he knew who were “trying to scare” him as a joke.
“They ran at me and literally it’s the first time I’ve ever in my life I’ve even seen a gun in the UK,” he said.
“For someone to have that on the streets makes it so unsafe. I mean, that could have been anyone. I couldn’t really retaliate at all because my wife was next to me. God forbid the person shot the gun and it hit my wife.
“I’m so happy that Faryal ran back and she made it away from that scene because anything could have happened.
“Could have been hit by a car, literally so close from being hit by the car, and then luckily the other workers and the owners of the restaurant went over to make sure that I was OK, but it was a bit too late by then.”
Ms Makhdoom told GMB: “You work hard so you should be able to treat yourself, but I think Amir sometimes forgets that he could get targeted.
“You never ever, you never think this would happen, so it’s a really big wake-up call. I don’t think you can really walk the streets of London wearing expensive watches and jewellery.”
In an Instagram post, she defended running away, saying she did so because she was thinking of the couple’s two daughters and son, adding: “This isn’t Romeo and Juliet.”
The family has now decided against moving to the capital as they had originally planned.
Mr Khan said: “London is not a place I want to live in anymore. Our plan to move there is not happening. We’re going to stick with living in our home in Bolton and spending time in Dubai.”