Nina Wadia recalls double mugging ordeal
Nina Wadia was mugged by a knife-wielding woman - but the response from strangers helped her to love London.
Nina Wadia learned to love London after being mugged.
The 56-year-old actress - who grew up in Mumbai, India, before moving to Hong Kong aged nine and then returning to the UK to complete her education - was left terrified when a knife-wielding woman slashed open her rucksack, cutting into her back with a knife, but she was cheered by the response from onlookers to the scary incident.
Appearing on BBC Radio London, Nina recalled: "I'm in Central London, in Oxford Street.
"I felt a punch in my back. She knifed my rucksack open, and my friend starts screaming because she'd just missed my spine.
"I was angry because I'd just lost my mum, and my favourite photo of my mother was in that wallet.
"So there I am, bleeding in the back, putting my hands in every single bin up and down Oxford Street looking for the photo of my mother."
The photo was "never found", but Nina was surprised by how witnesses to the incident came together to help her find it.
She said: "[I] never did [find the photo].
"But it doesn't matter because what happened along that way doing that was the amount of people that saw that happen in the store, the amount of people that said, 'We'll go through the bins,' and there were people walking up and down, didn't even know me from Adam.
"They went looking up and down, and said, 'We'll meet you back here in an hour.
"Now that is why I love London."
The incident was not the only time Nina has been mugged because she was also once accosted by a "very tall" man whilst getting her rent out of an ATM machine in a high street.
The former EastEnders star also recalled on the radio station: "I got mugged twice, and this was when ATM machines had just been put into high streets.
"I was getting my rent out, which I think, believe it or not, was £60 for the week.
"And I just remember a very tall presence behind me, and this voice saying, 'You want to give me that, don't you?'
"And then he pressed really hard into my back, and said, 'You want to give me that?!' His voice changed.
"At that point, my hand went straight up. 'Have it, I don't want anything.'
"He took it, and as he walked, he went, 'Thanks mate.'"
