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Dramatic video captured the moment when police stormed a London restaurant where a woman and two diners were allegedly held hostage by a man armed with a knife.
The incident took place at Bella Italia in Leicester Square at around 8.50pm on Wednesday evening.
It has been reported the suspect was a waiter at the restaurant who armed himself with a knife from the kitchen after an argument with a waitress.
Diners and staff fled the restaurant before the suspect locked the door, trapping the waitress and a middle-aged couple inside.
Show all 30 1 /30London commute through the ages London commute through the ages 1854 Ladies' crinolines are loaded onto an omnibus going from Sloane Street to Fleet Street, London
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London commute through the ages 1865 Passengers wearing top hats on a 'knifeboard' omnibus travelling on the route between Bank and the Strand in London
London commute through the ages 1900 A cyclist riding a penny farthing over Hammersmith Bridge, London
London commute through the ages 1909 The silhouette of the Eros statue hovers above passengers on board a motor bus passing Piccadilly Circus in London
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London commute through the ages 1910 Traffic outside Aldgate East underground station in London
London commute through the ages 1913 A woman reading a copy of the 'Suffragette' magazine on an open-top London bus
London commute through the ages 1919 London workers on their way to the city during the railway strike
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London commute through the ages 1919 Traffic congestion on the Embankment, London, during the railway strike
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London commute through the ages 1922 A man writing on a complaints poster on the London Underground
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London commute through the ages 1924 Mr Baldock from Clapham Depot Trams arrives at the Law Courts in London to attend an enquiry set up by the Ministry of Labour, into the bus and tram strike
London commute through the ages 1926 An independent bus crammed with commuters at Ludgate Circus, London, during the General Strike
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London commute through the ages 1926 A crowded platform at Paddington Station, London, during the General Strike. Passengers have just arrived from Slough on a local train driven by strike-breaking amateurs. The locomotive at bottom left is a GWR 2221 Class 4-4-2T, number 2223
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London commute through the ages 1929 The Auto Red Bug, America's latest electric two-seater being driven through the streets of London
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London commute through the ages 1940 Members of the public being entertained by an ENSA concert party in Aldwych Underground Station, London
London commute through the ages 1940 People from the more densely populated parts of London sleep in underground stations after the nightly bombing raids
London commute through the ages 1940 People sleep on the escalators of the underground stations after the nightly bombing raids
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London commute through the ages 1948 A party of Swedish transport workers watching a London Underground train passing through an automatic wash at Hainault, Middlesex
London commute through the ages 1952 Rays of springtime sun illuminate a railway policewoman in Liverpool Street Station, London
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London commute through the ages 1956 Commuters travel through London's Piccadilly Circus tube station
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London commute through the ages 1957 Crowds leaving London Bridge Station on their way home from work
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London commute through the ages 1957 Guitarist Brian Hinton busking to travelers on the London Underground
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London commute through the ages 1960 Fox photographer George Freston sits on the London Underground, reading a copy of D H Lawrence's novel 'Lady Chatterley's Lover', on the day the book went on general sale, after a jury at the Old Bailey decided that the book was not obscene, after a 33 year old ban. Fox photographer Les Graves is on his left
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London commute through the ages 1967 London commuters try out the new Raleigh motorised small-wheeled cycle, which features automatic transmission
London commute through the ages 1968 A mock-up at the 'Victoria Line' exhibition at the Design Centre, London, of the interior of a new type of carriage which was used on the new Victoria Line of the London Underground. The new carriages featured length ways seating to allow more room for standing passengers, two-level arm rests, which can be shared by adjacent passengers, and internal speakers for driver announcements
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London commute through the ages 1969 Britain's Queen Elizabeth II inaugurates the Victoria line of the London Underground during the official opening ceremony
London commute through the ages 1972 A protest against the proposed closure of London Underground's Central Line from Epping to Ongar, outside the Houses of Parliament
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London commute through the ages 1974 Popular singer Desmond Dekker assists Mad Eric Jarvis in his attempt to break the world record for sewage pipe squatting, as they travel on a London tube train
London commute through the ages 1975 A queue at the ticket office at Gloucester Road underground station, London
London commute through the ages 1975 A policeman asks for the assistance of passengers from Moorgate Tube station following the train crash in the tunnel
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London commute through the ages 1978 Passengers travel on the London Underground
The stand-off continued for two hours before police stormed the restaurant and detained the suspect.
The Metropolitan Police reported there were no injuries.
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