TWO thugs armed with a large knife were spotted chasing a man in Colchester.

Castle ward councillor Simon Crow had been out in the town centre on Saturday night with other Conservative party members and was on his way home from the Bar B Q House restaurant in North Station Road shortly after 1am when he saw a man running past him.

The man shouted out to Mr Crow but he was unable to make out what he was saying.

But within seconds he spotted two other men chasing the man.

When Mr Crow arrived home, he received messages from people saying the man being chased had run into Bar B Q House.

Mr Crow’s Tory colleague Jeremy Hagon spoke to the man and tried to calm him down before another man entered the restaurant..

It was then the man revealed they had threatened him with the blade, thought to have been roughly 12ins long, and started to run after him.

Mr Hagon called 999 and Military Police officers quickly arrived on the scene to tsearch the area.

The men were not found and no arrests were made.

Mr Crow has recently spent a shift with Essex Police in Colchester town centre along with ward colleague and group leader Darius Laws.

He said: “We saw first hand them dealing with antisocial behaviour, street drinkers and aggressive beggars and other low level crimes, and are committed to working with the police and the council to help them tackle these issues.

“This incident really brought this into focus and was a stark reminder of some of the problems the police are facing on our streets.”

Anyone with information should contact police on 101 quoting incident 70 of September 23.