A RESTAURANT owner has spoken out in anger after a group of drunken louts smashed his window during a fight.

Raj Bhangal, who runs the Wimpy restaurant in Colchester High Street, was contacted by neighbouring businesses on Friday morning.

He came into work to see the front window to the fast food restaurant had been completely shattered.

He managed to look through CCTV footage and saw a small group of men walking past, between midnight and 1am.

He said: “There was a fight outside. There were about four or five people who were fighting. You can see all of them on the CCTV.

“It must have gone on for about five minutes; one of them got thrown into the window and it smashed.”

He was furious after seeing the extent of the damage, which will cost him about £1,500 to fix as it is extra strong glass.

He added: “It will cost a lot as it’s toughened glass. We were all saying they must have been pushed hard to be able to break it.

“I was on the phone to police for about 40 minutes but they said there was nothing they could do unless the CCTV was clear. “

Mr Bhangal said nothing like this has happened in the past decade he has run the High Street venue, so it came as a surprise to see the shop so badly damaged.

He added: “We close at 8pm and normally we don’t get any trouble.

“It looked like quite a bad fight, it’s thick glass and this guy was really going for the other one. “

He is urging anyone who may have information to come forward and contact the police so other businesses in the area do not suffer the same fate.

He added: “It would have been kick-out time in all the pubs, so they could have come from down the road but I’m not sure.

“I think the Slug and Lettuce and George Hotel have CCTV footage, and hopefully the council does as well.”

There is a possibility other people in the Slug and Lettuce next door, which would have closed at midnight on Thursday, may have seen the fight.

Others may have seen a group of men acting drunk and disorderly near Wimpy.

Anyone with information should call Essex Police on 101, or contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111 or crimestoppers-uk.org.