Patrons at a restaurant had to cower in fear and were forced to run or hide after masked men smashed the front windows in a shocking attack.
Santinni bar and restaurant was packed with customers when the unexpected assault with baseball bats and an axe took place on Wednesday night.
Witnesses have claimed two masked men were seen getting out of a silver Ford Focus before using weapons to shatter the front windows and damage the frame.
A crowd of children who were celebrating an 11-year-old's birthday party were left terrified as the smashed window fragmented onto their table, which was positioned close to the window.
The attack was said to have lasted less than one minute but forced families to cow beneath tables and for waitresses to flea and lock themselves in the toilets.
The masked raiders launched their attack on the Shildon restaurant in County Durham, before getting back into their getaway vehicle.
Police are now following up the incident and the restaurant manager has made apologies to customers and staff who were there that night.
Alex Bestwick, manager of Santinni’s, received a call from one of the staff members during the incident. She said: “I was out shopping and I got a call from one of the staff members during the incident.
“I was told by staff that one man was smashing the window with a baseball bat and the other man was smashing it with an axe.
“It must have lasted around 30 seconds as I rushed to the restaurant and was there within minutes, and the men were gone.”
Members of staff helped families and children into the toilet during the attack. Alex said: “We brought the children, their parents and other customers into the toilet and then took them out the back of the building.
“We had a group of children who were sat next to the window so they were all very scared.”
The restaurant reopened on Thursday morning, stating online that they were open for business as usual.
Alex said: “We opened up at 9am this morning and have been sorting things out most of the day. We’ve also been calling customers from last night to check on their wellbeing and have been in contact with the police.”
In a post on Facebook, the owners thanked local support and how their main priority is the wellbeing of their staff and customers.
The post said: “Obviously we have put a post on this morning stating that we are open for business as usual...
“I think a few people have taken our post the wrong way as our main priority was last night and is this morning the welfare of all of our staff and customers.
“We have had to deal with police, reporters and customers from last night so we haven’t got round to ringing all of our customers that were in last night just yet.
“We have spoken to a handful of people and had customers in to speak to us as well as dealing with our staff at the same time.
“Unfortunately this incident happened when it did, we had a restaurant full of young children and we can only apologise that this has happened and affected our customers but we are doing our best to deal with this following police advice.
“We have at this moment got no idea or why this was done but as soon as we do find out I’ll put it on the page
“Thanks all for your ongoing support.”
Alex urged anyone who has any information about the incident to contact Durham police on 101.
