A SHOPPER has told how he feared for his life during a heist in which two axe-wielding men raided a chic city pawnbrokers.

Euan Ivory had been browsing in the Duncanson and Edwards Pawn Shop in Queen Street, Edinburgh, when two masked men burst in yelling that he would be chopped up unless he got on the ground.

The thieves then smashed cabinets and stole jewellery worth £76,648 before fleeing the store on mountain bikes on January 15 2014.

The 29-year-old spoke out after Gareth Edwards, a prisoner of HMP Saughton, pleaded guilty to charges of armed robbery and failing to appear at the High Court in Edinburgh yesterday.

Mr Ivory said: “I was on my way back from university and I saw something in the window of the pawnbroker which interested me so I went inside.

“Two men then burst in carrying axes with their faces covered, and told me to get on the floor very forcibly.

“When something like happens you do as they say and don’t try to be a hero, so I got on the floor.

"One of them then stood very close to my head, and you had to take their threats seriously.”

While his accomplice threatened Mr Ivory, Edwards, who is originally from Manchester, demanded staff member Alan Thomson empty the till.

Mr Thomson then removed the till drawer and showed that it was empty.

Edwards then smashed open display cases and removed designer watches and other items worth tens of thousands of pounds.

Mr Ivory, who works on at Highland Estate which dates back to 1226, told how he had been showered with broken glass and dropped jewellery, but was otherwise unhurt by his ordeal.

He said: “It probably lasted about a minute and a half, but seemed to take much longer.

“It’s a tremendous relief that [Edwards] pleaded guilty to this because it spares me having to go back to court and confront him, although I would have been OK doing that.

“And I have to praise the police for their extremely good conduct towards me. We tend to bash our public services in this country but I was looked after extremely well.”

Edwards was caught after Greater Manchester Police officers were called into help Scottish colleagues who suspected that gangsters from the north west carried out the raid.

The English officers viewed CCTV footage and identified Edwards as being one of the crooks involved in the incident.

However, the robber still tried to evade justice by jumping bail ahead of a high court appearance and headed for Benidorm.

Officers learned that he was hiding out in the holiday resort and managed to extradite him back to the UK.

Prosecutor Stephen McCloy told the court that Edwards had previously been convicted at Manchester Crown Court and received a 44 month sentence for robbery.

After being released from that sentence, Edwards headed north to Edinburgh with another man.

Mr McCloy told the court that detectives learned he was in Spain and liaised with their colleagues there.

Edwards finally returned to the UK in April this year.

Judge Weir adjourned sentence and ordered a report into Edwards’s character.

He will be sentenced at the High Court in Edinburgh on August 11, 2017.