In the latest of our series focussing on pharmacists dealing with extreme situations, he tells C+D about the terrifying night when he feared for his life, and how his team picked up the pieces so they could continue serving patients.

I was working late in the pharmacy in August 2011, along with my pharmacist brother Hitesh. We were both doing paperwork on a Sunday, the day after the riots had started in nearby Tottenham.

I had just finished and was preparing to leave at about 5pm, when suddenly there was a commotion outside and I noticed a group of around 10 people milling around.

We wanted to leave, and tried to get to our car outside, but as we left they started to run towards the shop from across the road. So we went back in and locked the door. We were stuck inside while the group, which had now grown to about 20 people, tried to break in.

They tried to force the shutters open but it got stuck, so instead they broke the window to get into the shop. They took perfumes and things like that – anything they could sell off.

If I had been there by myself, I think I would probably have been killed. We were in the shop – not in the consultation room. We could see them and they could see us. To defend ourselves, we barricaded ourselves in with chairs and furniture and we were trapped.

Dealing with the aftermath

Some local residents called the police, but nobody came. In the end it was about 4am by the time we left and got things boarded up.

The police arrived the next day, and took statements from Hitesh and I. The forensics team also came, who cordoned off the shop and took fingerprints off the panes of glass. The police obtained CCTV footage from outside, and from the news camera crews who had been out in the street.

Over the next week we closed the front of the shop while we repaired the windows and the doors, which cost more than £400, and we lost about £700-worth of stock. But we had to make sure we were able to serve patients, as we still had customers coming in the next day to get their medication. Initially, we served them from the back of the shop because of the damage at the front. The patients who came were grateful and they maintained their custom while we were clearing up after the riot.

We were not tempted to give up; we had a business to run. We had all our customers to serve, who we are focused on, so closing [the pharmacy] was not an option.

The MP for Enfield North at the time, Nick de Bois, came to visit us and was helpful. He had been out on the night of the riot in the town centre. There was a great community spirit and Love Enfield, a campaign to support local businesses and promote the area, was launched as a result of the riots.

We also had visits from Royal Pharmaceutical Society inspectors, to see that we were all right and help get us back on our feet. There was a concern that some controlled drugs might be missing, but none of our medicines were stolen.

After the riots there was a fund set up to mitigate the loss, which paid a maximum of £3,000 to shop owners whose property had been damaged. Enfield Council, which was very good after the riots, paid us some money to help make up for what we lost. But we still have £15,000 outstanding in insurance claims and loss of earnings – we still haven’t been paid these expenses.

Moving on

On October 1 this year, I will have been in this pharmacy for 32 years. Life has to go on – and I think of the riot as an isolated episode. We were not targeted specifically – we were one of many shops in Enfield that were hit.

My advice to other people coping in a similar situation is that although it looks awful initially, once you work through it, everything is much easier. Coping with something like this is not as daunting a prospect as it first looks.

We took comfort from the many messages of support from our customers and people all over the world. After the riots, we had calls from customers who had moved away to India, Australia and America who had seen us on the news.

It was good to know that there were people who were thinking about us, our safety and our welfare.