A man has gone on trial for the murder 15 years ago of a curry takeaway owner who was hacked to death with a meat cleaver after being lured to a quiet residential road for a fake delivery.

Father-of-two Abdul Samad, 25, was attacked as he got out of his car with the meal for the bogus customer in Alwyne Road, Canonbury, on May 21 1997, the Old Bailey heard this week.

He suffered more than 20 wounds to his head, face, arms, legs and body and died at the Whittington Hospital two hours later.

The killers left masks and in 1999 DNA on one was matched to Mohiuddin Bablu, now 37, jurors were told.

But it was not until last year that the Bangladeshi authorities agreed to his extradition to the UK to stand trial.

It is claimed that Mr Samad was murdered because he refused to mediate in a dispute between two Bangladeshi gangs.

He was part-owner of the Curry-in-a-Hurry takeaway in St Paul’s Road, Highbury, and was responsible for most deliveries.

On the night of the attack, an order was made from a public phone for a curry to be delivered to Alwyne Road.

Prosecutor Mark Ellison QC said: “He must have thought that this was just another routine takeaway.

“But his attackers had come prepared. They had weapons including a meat cleaver and makeshift masks.”

Mr Samad was chased towards the junction with Alwyne Villas. While one woman witness ran inside to dial 999, her partner described seeing Mr Samad lying on the ground with one man crouching over him and a third delivering ‘‘very violent’’ blows with what looked like a stick. The attackers ran off pursued by residents back into Alwyne Road.

The prosecution claims that Bablu and an unidentified man turned up at his sister’s home in Birmingham after the murder, leaving a jacket stained with the victim’s blood.

Bablu, of no fixed address, denies murder.

The trial continues.