A SCHOOLBOY who escaped a gang of muggers turned the tables on them when he ran into school, grabbed a teacher and set off in pursuit.

Seventeen-year-old Ollie Fedele was just yards from Trinity High School in Woodford Green when the gang-of-three grabbed him in Mornington Road.

But the attack had been spotted by a group of women walking their dogs nearby who shouted at the muggers to stop.

Ollie was first to react, making a break for it, and bursting into the office of a startled deputy headteacher, Mark Loster.

Mr Loster said: “Pupils at the school had been warned about the muggers, who had taken an iPod and mobile phone from a boy on Woodford Green High Road eight or nine days earlier.

“And the school had already received a report of another unsuccessful attempt to mug a Trinity pupil on Sunset Avenue that morning.

“So I said ‘Come on! We’ll jump in the car and see where they go’.”

The pair ran to Mr Loster’s car and set off down the High Road in search of the gang.

Ollie said: “I realised there would be a lot of younger children walking to school, and I was quite worried that they might be targeted by these guys so I really wanted to make sure we caught up with them.”

As Ollie called the police on his mobile phone, the pair spotted the gang ambling in the direction of Woodford Police Station.

Mr Loster said: “I grabbed the phone and started shouting that if the police just ran out of the station they would get these guys.”

And as the unwitting trio strolled past the station, four police officers came charging out and a robbery squad car screeched to a halt alongside them.

Mr Loster said: “Two of the muggers stopped, but the third one decided to make a run for it toward Woodford Green.

“He got to the working men’s club and then clearly ran out of puff, because he stopped and tried to hide behind a car, but one of the robbery squad rugby tackled him.”

The gang were arrested and taken into custody leaving Ollie and Mr Loster to return to school.

Ollie said: “When we got back I just got on with my day.

“I don’t hold anything against the guys who tried to mug me and hopefully this is the last time they think of doing something like this. I want to be a criminal psychologist when I leave school, so I suppose this was useful preparation for that.

Mr Loster said: “Ollie was brilliant and it’s thanks to him the muggers were caught. You might think someone would hesitate in his situation, but he provided a perfect example of active citizenship.”

The suspects were subsequently charged with robbery, resisting arrest and assault on police.