A London restaurant which was only open for five days has been subject to ‘abhorrent’ racism by locals who warned they will ‘never eat there’.
Customers and staff at the Axe and Ember Smokehouse in Walthamstow, east London, which opened only five days ago, were called ‘P***s’ while they sat enjoying the prime cuts of meat on Sunday night.
Those sat inside said they spotted the woman giving them a ‘thumbs down’ signal from outside the window for a few minutes before one of the owners, Uzma Hussain, went over.
Uzma, who is a practising lawyer, said she was then subject to verbal abuse for around half an hour before the woman left.
She told Metro: ‘I was born and bred in Walthamstow Village. I have only ever had positive experiences, so I just went into shock when she started calling me all of these horrible names.’
Footage shows the woman calling the group a number of slurs, telling them all: ‘You are a p***, you are not from here.’
When another man walking his dog tells the woman to ‘take those opinions home’ she repeatedly yells: ‘You f*** off.’
Along with her husband Rizwan, she poured her life savings into opening the restaurant.
They made the deicison after Rizwan, who has worked in finance for years, decided he wanted to open his own business.
Uzma said: ‘When we were deciding to open the business, my one requirement was that it had to be in Walthamstow as it was my home and I loved it here.
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‘So that just made the attack all the more shocking. It was so shocking it took me a few minutes to understand what was happening.
‘At first I thought the woman was upset because she was vegan, but she told me: “You do know no one is going to come here because you are Asian”.’
Customers came over to support Uzma but were then subjected to abuse themselves.
One of the customers, Jimmy, told Metro: ‘She didn’t just yell at us, she called a woman who came over ‘a b****.’
‘It’s just sad. These owers have only just opened up and do not have many customers yet.’
The ordeal lasted around half an hour before the woman walked away.
But Uzma said she has been left pleased by how many people have come out to support her.
She said: ‘We have been inundated with messages asking if we are okay. And everyone who heard what was going on tried to intervene – it really is heartwarming.’
A spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police said a woman in her 40s has been arrested on suspicion of racially aggravated common assault. She remains in custody.
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