Armed police with helicopter support arrested a man in Islington on Saturday in connection with a pistol-whipping and robbery in Kilburn on New Years’ Day.

Police officers in an unmarked vehicle noticed a car wanted in relation to the armed robbery in Kilburn travelling down Upper Street, near Union Chapel.

The cops trailing him called in firearms officers for backup – The suspect stopped and entered a café.

A Scotland Yard spokesperson said: “They arrested a 36-year-old man on suspicion of actual bodily harm, robbery and possession of a firearm in connection with an armed robbery in Harrow Road, Kilburn, at about 3.25am on January 1 [...]

“He was taken to a central London police station and was subsequently released with no further action.”

They added: “The victim, aged in his 30s, was in an altercation with a number of suspects outside a nightclub in Kilburn Lane.

“He was then chased by the suspects before he was hit repeatedly in the head with the butt of a gun and slashed across the face with a knife in Harrow Road.

“The suspects stole the victim’s watch before running off. The victim was taken to a central London hospital with non-life threatening injuries.”

On Saturday, witnesses saw cops, some of them armed, cuffing a man across the road from Budgens, near the Union Chapel.

One neighbour tweeted: “Is that a police chopper above Canonbury Square? My windows are shaking!”

Another bystander later tweeted: “The police had massive guns. Something major it seems.”

They also claim to have seen a “heavily armed officer searching the undergrowth for something”.