Regent Street jewellers raided by scooter gang

A gang on scooters has raided a central London jewellery store.

The gang, reportedly armed with knives and hammers, targeted Watches of Switzerland on Regent Street at about 10:15 BST.

The Met Police and said the suspects stole "several items of property". One man has been arrested on suspicion of robbery.

He has been taken to a central London police station and enquiries continue to trace the outstanding suspects.

The robbery follows an attack on comedian Michael McIntyre on Monday in which two men on a moped smashed his car windows and stole his watch while he was parked outside his children's school at about 14:00 BST on North End Road, Golders Green.

About seven hours later, a 24-year-old woman was targeted by two men on a moped on Holyrood Gardens, Edgware, about five miles from where Mr McIntyre was attacked.

After struggling with the victim, the pillion passenger punched her, causing her to fall backwards.

The attacker stole her mobile phone and bag, before the pair made off on the moped towards Stag Lane.

The woman was taken to a central London hospital with a head injury, and police described her condition as "critical". No arrests have been made.

BBC News correspondent Andy Moore said this was the "sort of thing that's happening on a daily basis on London's streets".

"It is a problem elsewhere but it seems to be the capital is suffering terribly," he added.

Data obtained by the BBC showed number of offences carried out by criminals using mopeds in London has increased from 827 offences in 2012 to more than 23,000 last year.

Met Police commissioner Cressida Dick claimed overall moped crime has been decreasing under her leadership.

"When I came in April 2017, moped crime had been going up," she told the Home Affairs Select Committee, "but for the last several months we have seen a 50% reduction."

This, she said, has been achieved through "new tactics, better intelligence, more coordination and more focus in targeted hotspots."