A "troublemaker" brandishing an axe was disarmed by brave customers at a family pub on Saturday evening.

The young man threatened to attack patrons before returning with an axe to the Famous Green Man in the heart of usually peaceful Ewell Village.

Clive Lane, owner of the pub, said the other owner John Kerwood who was there on the night, recognised the "troublemaker" when he walked into the pub and refused to serve him.

Mr Lane said: "He then got mouthy and loud and two trusted locals asked him to leave the pub straightaway.

"He started having a go at them verbally and threatening them. He threatened to come back with an axe and attack them. It was laughed off as a silly young idiot."

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But to their surprise, Mr Lane said: "He did come back and he did have an axe with him. He was instantly disarmed. It’s something that obviously has never happened here before."

After two regulars managed to take the axe from the man, he ran off and police officers were called.

Mr Lane said it was four years since the man's previous visit and they hoped it would be "considerably longer" before he tried to come back again.

He said: "I think he was scared off and hopefully this is the last anyone ever sees of him.

"This is absolutely the sort of thing that never happens at the Famous Green Man.

"We are a peaceful, families, locals business. It's a one-off."

He added: "I am surprised but very satisfied that it was dealt with promptly without anybody being hurt and to the letter of the law. We immediately dealt with it and called the police."

Councillor Clive Woodbridge, who represents Ewell Village on Epsom Council, said: "It must have been a very frightening incident for the people in the pub and for the staff and everybody.

"For the last five years Ewell has been trouble-free. Hopefully this is a very isolated incident and I have every confidence that police will deal with it."

Yesterday police said they could not find a record of the incident but are now looking into what happened based on further information supplied by the Epsom Guardian.