A PONDERS END trader, who was targeted during last night’s looting, has slammed the police for reacting slowly.

Mehmet Yildirim, 42, owner of YPS Phone Shop, in High Street, is upset with the police because they turned up two hours after his alarm company rang them to say the store had been broken into.

The father-of-two received a call at 3.40am and, accompanied by his brother-in-law, made his way to the shop.

He disturbed teenagers at the back of the store stealing laptops, phones and other valuable electrical equipment.

Mr Yildirim said: “There was no damage at the front, so I went round the back and four people came running out of the shop.

“They had broken through three doors and cut the wires to the electricity and CCTV cameras.

“There was no police here, my brother-in-law and I had to guard the shop.”

Police finally arrived at 5.30am after further calls by the alarm company. They told Mr Yildirim there had been a mix up with the information getting through to them.

Mr Yildirim said he was concerned the masked and gloved teenagers could have attacked him.

He said: “The police don’t do enough. The damage was awful last night, too much. They need to do more and get tougher.”

Reflecting on last night’s crime, he said: “This was not protesting. This is just burglary, that’s all.

“Fourteen and fifteen year olds, they are not protesting. They don’t know anything about what happened. They are just using it to their advantage to rob shops.”

Mr Yildirim was referring to the death of Mark Duggan who was killed in a police operation in Tottenham last week.

The father-of-two also told the Enfield Independent he had visited High Street earlier in the evening, at around 8pm, to check his shop was not damaged.

He said he saw dozens of youths roaming the streets, laughing at the police, bins on fire and other shop windows smashed.