These are the terrifying scenes when a TV antiques expert was hit over the head with a hammer after bravely confronting two robbers who stole more than £100,000 worth of jewellery from his store.

The attack on Ian Towning, one of London's best-known dealers, was captured on CCTV during the minute-long raid last Tuesday lunchtime.

He told The Mail on Sunday that he believes his appearances as a guest expert on Dickinson's Real Deal on ITV and Channel 4's Posh Pawn made him a target.

'The doctors told me that I am lucky to be alive,' he said. The ordeal began when his security guard Mark Simmons, 58, spotted two balaclava-clad men outside the Chelsea store on a monitor.

Mr Simmons challenges them but is struck on the head and knocked unconscious. Footage then shows the robbers unsuccessfully trying to smash the main display cabinet's reinforced glass with a sledgehammer.

At the time Mr Towning, 76, was on the other side, and he reaches for a button to bring down steel shutters on the shop door, but is too late.

Seconds later the robbers burst inside and push past Mr Towning's terrified partner, 77-year-old Les Barrett, while shouting 'get on the f****** floor'.

Mr Towning refuses and tries to block the pair from reaching a display crammed with £1 million worth of antique jewellery.

It is then that he is bludgeoned with the claw hammer, leaving him with a gashed forehead and bruising.