Arsenal footballers Ozil and Kolasinac 'fine' after fighting off would-be carjackers
Arsenal left-back Sead Kolsinac tweeted both he and Mesut Ozil are "fine" after they were held at knife-point in a botched carjacking yesterday.
Both footballers were surrounded by armed robbers as Ozil drove near Golders Green, north London on Thursday.
In footage posted on social media, Kolasinac can be seen jumping out the vehicle to confront the masked attackers, who had pulled alongside the car on mopeds.
Both men were seen to be armed and were filmed brandishing knives at 26-year-old left-back.
Posting a picture of himself and Ozil smiling as they walked into training, Kolasinac wrote: "Think we're fine"."
Kolsaniac fought off the armed attackers before getting back into the vehicle, where Mesut Ozil's wife Amine Gulse was also a passenger.
Ozil managed to drive off from the scene but they were chased by the moped gang for around a mile before they stopped outside a Turkish restaurant in Golders Green where they players are known.
Kolsaniac, Ozil and his wife fled the Mercedes 4x4 and went into the restaurant as onlookers chased off the attackers, who escaped from the scene empty-handed.
Yazmin Tahsiner, an eyewitness and a family friend, told GMB: "When we called the police actually and I come in and see his wife, she was shaking. Really, she was scared.
"They had been chased all this way them and they had metal skewers and big bricks to throw on the car.
An Arsenal spokesman said: “We have been in contact with both players and they are fine.”
Police, who had received reports of an attempted robbery, went to Platts Lane, in north-west London, on Thursday shortly before 5pm, according to Scotland Yard.
A spokesman said: “It was reported that suspects on motorbikes had attempted to rob a man who was driving a car.
“The driver, along with his passenger, managed to get away unharmed and travelled to a restaurant in Golders Green, where they were spoken to by officers.”
The spokesman said there have been no arrests and officers are still investigating the incident.
Kolasinac and midfielder Ozil are not the first London-based footballers to be targeted on the road.
In 2016, then West Ham striker Andy Carroll was threatened at gunpoint on his way home from training.