A BUSINESS owner has described the terrifying moment a suspected gunman entered his restaurant chasing after a man.

Abdul Aziz, who is the manager of Hook Tandoori, bravely confronted the man who he says twice tried to gain entry in pursuit of the man.

He brushed off suggestions he was brave, after pushing the man, who could have been armed, out of his store.

As previously reported in The Gazette, police were called last night (Wednesday, August 5) to Hook Tandoori on Station Road after reports that a man was threatening another person with a gun.

And Abdul describes how just after 9.30pm, he was in the kitchen at the back of the restaurant when a man jumped out of a vehicle from the rear car park, and tried to enter through the back door.

But Abdul, who has been at the helm of Hook Tandoori for ten years, was straight into action and shouted at the man to get out.

Meanwhile, other staff members at the front were dealing with a terrified man who burst into the restaurant, packed with nearly 20 diners, asking for refuge, saying he was being chased by a man with a gun.#

“All the customers were scared,” the manager told The Gazette.

“We were a little bit scared at first but after that it was okay.”

After securing the back door, Abdul made his way to the front, hearing the commotion, by which point the assailant had also made his way round.

For a second time, Abdul courageously took matters into his own hands, pushing the gunman out of his store and locking the door. Whilst he says he could not see a weapon, he knew that there was a possibility he could have been carrying one.

“I didn’t think about anything,” he continued. “I protected him because he said he was threatening his life and had a gun.

“I told him to sit here,” he adds, pointing to a table away from the door, “and called the police.”

The police were at the scene for an hour and a half, taking witness statements.

A spokesperson for Hampshire Constabulary told this newspaper earlier this morning (Thursday 6): “We were called just after 9.40pm last night (August 5) to a report of a man with a firearm in Station Road, Hook. Officers attended, but he was not located. Enquiries are continuing.”

Just over twelve hours later, Abdul and his team are preparing for tonight, hoping that it will be less eventful than the last.

But for Abdul, he says he now feels unsafe, because of a lack of CCTV coverage of the area.

Opposite The Raven pub and close to the train station, there is a council-run CCTV camera that rotates on approximately five minute intervals. But in that time, Abdul says that one hundred cars could pass through.

Basingstoke Gazette: The camera rotates between the station, The Raven pub and the parade of shops on Station RoadThe camera rotates between the station, The Raven pub and the parade of shops on Station Road

And it’s apparently the fourth crime to have taken place in the immediate vicinity in the last six months.

“It makes me feel unsafe as a business owner.

“How many cars are going past? It takes five minutes to turn.

“It is getting worse.”